Five faculty members join Idaho State University School of Nursing in Meridian and Pocatello

Idaho State University’s School of Nursing has hired five faculty members, including assistant nursing professor, Susan Tavernier, Ph.D., who heads the Accelerated Nursing Program at the ISU-Meridian Health Science Center.

Other Meridian nursing hires are clinical assistant professor Cristy Bledsoe, Ph.D., and clinical instructor Marshall Jewell, M.S.N. Clinical associate professor, Sandie Nadelson, Ph.D., and clinical instructor, Omotayo Omotowa, M.S.N., are based in Pocatello.

Tavernier, who received her nursing doctorate from University of Utah, has conducted extensive research into quality of life and care issues for cancer patients.  She has presented her research at numerous national conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals, including the October 2013 issue of Psycho-Oncology.

“ISU is a recognized leader of nursing and research in Idaho,” said Tavernier, who received the 2012 Oncology Nursing Society award for excellence in writing for quantitative research.
Before joining ISU as a full-time faculty member, Tavernier served as a preceptor for graduate student research and on thesis committees.

Bledsoe has more than 35 years of nursing experience in acute care and skilled nursing facilities. Her background includes development of bedside nurse researchers and implementation of evidence-based practice in nursing care.

A former chair of the Idaho Nurses Association Education Committee, Bledsoe graduated from Idaho State University and completed her nursing doctorate at University of Utah.
Jewell has more than 10 years of nursing experience, including emergency, wound and intensive care.  He holds a Master of Science degree in nursing from Grand Canyon University and is working on his nursing doctorate.  He is a member of the American Assembly of Men in Nursing.

Nadelson, the new undergraduate studies associate director, has lectured in the United States, China, Finland and the Czech Republic. A clinical associate professor, she holds a Master of Science degree in nursing from California State University and completed her doctorate in higher education at University of Nevada.  Her research interests include community health, improving STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—education, and promoting nursing student success.

Clinical instructor Omotowa is the new simulation lab coordinator in Pocatello. Her areas of interest include teaching, simulation, public health and geriatric nursing. She has five years of staff nurse experience on medical surgical units at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls and has taught government at the Bishop Smith Memorial College in Nigeria.

A member of the Idaho Nurses Association, she holds a master’s degree in public administration from Obafermi Qwolowo University in Nigeria and a master’s degree in nursing education from Walden University.

Read more about the new faculty and see photos at http://www.isu.edu/nursing/facstaff.shtml.