Meet Valda Upenieks of UHSC
Dr. Valda Upenieks is the founder of Upenieks Health Services Consulting-UHSC and she has been a registered nurse for over 25 years. Dr. Upenieks has functioned in a variety of director roles. These roles have provided Dr. Upenieks with numerous opportunities in addressing hospital/nursing management issues from a unique system’s perspective while maintaining financial soundness. Dr. Upenieks has a strong research knowledge-base in both quantitative and qualitative research design methods, thus able to work on a variety of operational problems and get sustained results.
Dr. Upenieks received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington (U of W), School of Nursing in 2002. The U of W School of Nursing has been rated as number one in the nation for over 15 years, preparing scholars in research based endeavors as well as sought out faculty members at the highest rated universities. Dr. Upenieks served as a faculty member for UCLA, School of Nursing from 2003-2008, and taught graduate courses for the Nursing Administration Program and Masters Entrance Clinical Nurse Program. Specific courses taught included: Financial and Operational Planning for the Nurse Administrator, Strategic Planning, Leadership Theory and Systems Thinking.
Dr. Valda Upenieks research has focused on how organizational structures influence leadership success, job satisfaction level of nurses, and patient outcomes—utilizing the Magnet hospital model as a framework in assessing organizational effectiveness. Additional research studies have included evaluating the effectiveness of mandated nurse staffing ratios on patient and economic outcomes, as well as improving staff vitality among staff nurses.
For five years, Dr. Upenieks served as a co-investigator for the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation: Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) initiative and TCAB Spread Evaluation. The TCAB initiative was launched to help hospitals engage frontline staff in bottom-up change processes to simultaneously improve the work environment and care on medical-surgical units. The TCAB framework has been built around improvements in four main categories:
• Improve the quality and safety of patient care on medical-surgical units
• Increase the vitality of nurses
• Engage and improve the patient’s and family members’ experience of care
• Improve the effectiveness of the entire care team through value-added care processes
Dr. Valda Upenieks was the co-developer of the Healthcare Team Vitality Instrument (HTVI)—a tool designed as part of the TCAB initiative for repeated, regular measurement to assess the impact on staff vitality of changes tested on the medical-surgical units. The HTVI is a short instrument used to measure team vitality with an emphasis on dimensions related to frontline staff engagement, perception of a work environment supportive of safe and quality patient care, effective communication and team collaboration. The tool has been adapted based upon validation research.
Dr. Upenieks is an honored member of Strathmore's “Who's Who in America”; a leading biographical publication listing thousands of successful individuals in the fields of Medicine, Business, Education, the Arts & Sciences, Research, Healthcare, Law, Engineering, and Government. She is also a published author in various nursing administration journals, specifically an expert author related to Magnet hospitals.
Review Dr. Upenieks extensive resume.
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