Cara Spencer
May 2023
Cara
Spencer
,
PhD, RN, FNP-BC
Professional Development
UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital
Aurora
,
CO
United States
Cara’s passion for mentoring others and for addressing workplace violence has led to exemplary outcomes.
Cara has been a nurse for 34 years with experience in oncology and hospice care and as a Family Nurse Practitioner. She has worked for UCHealth as a Research Nurse Scientist since 2015. Cara shares her knowledge and expertise as a preceptor and mentor to numerous clinical RNs, nursing leaders, masters and doctoral students, and UEXECL credentialees. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Ambulatory Nursing (AAACN) and she presides as the Committee Chair for their Publishing Committee. Cara also received a grant from the DAISY Foundation.
Cara’s passion for mentoring others and for addressing workplace violence has led to exemplary outcomes. She conducted an IRB-approved study that assessed the feasibility of using of the Broset Violence Checklist in acute care areas. The study demonstrated nurses spent less time with high risk for violence patients, yet showed no negative patient outcomes, thus supporting the use of the checklist across UCHealth.
Cara has led seminal work to identify how telephone verbal violence negatively impacts staff and the need for guidelines to address these patients. Her survey data showed 25% of ambulatory nurses experience verbal violence from one to three times a day, and 50% reported they felt upset for more than an hour after the call and/or ruminated on the call after leaving work.
Cara has mentored an ambulatory clinic nurse who struggled with how patients treated her on the phone due to her foreign accent which would evoke inappropriate comments, racial slurs, and negative encounters. Cara guided this nurse to find a solution to this problem through the development of a telephone scripting tool to empower nurses to de-escalate these calls as well as successfully disengage when boundaries are crossed. Together, they also developed the system-wide Ambulatory Telephone Verbal Violence & De-escalation Course. This work led to two poster presentations and a national publication that received the prestigious AAACN Writers Award. Cara also served on a workplace violence prevention town hall panel discussion at the recent national AAACN conference.
Additionally, Cara has mentored ambulatory nurse leaders to define and determine interventions for cyber incivility and cyber aggression, and the negative impact on nurses and staff who read and respond to these hostile and inflammatory messages sent through My Health Connection. Cara has helped disseminate this work through publication in a national nursing journal.
Maria Forleo is quoted as saying, “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently”. Cara has shown that she consistently fosters and inspires a love of nursing research and innovation in others. Congratulations Cara!
Cara’s passion for mentoring others and for addressing workplace violence has led to exemplary outcomes. She conducted an IRB-approved study that assessed the feasibility of using of the Broset Violence Checklist in acute care areas. The study demonstrated nurses spent less time with high risk for violence patients, yet showed no negative patient outcomes, thus supporting the use of the checklist across UCHealth.
Cara has led seminal work to identify how telephone verbal violence negatively impacts staff and the need for guidelines to address these patients. Her survey data showed 25% of ambulatory nurses experience verbal violence from one to three times a day, and 50% reported they felt upset for more than an hour after the call and/or ruminated on the call after leaving work.
Cara has mentored an ambulatory clinic nurse who struggled with how patients treated her on the phone due to her foreign accent which would evoke inappropriate comments, racial slurs, and negative encounters. Cara guided this nurse to find a solution to this problem through the development of a telephone scripting tool to empower nurses to de-escalate these calls as well as successfully disengage when boundaries are crossed. Together, they also developed the system-wide Ambulatory Telephone Verbal Violence & De-escalation Course. This work led to two poster presentations and a national publication that received the prestigious AAACN Writers Award. Cara also served on a workplace violence prevention town hall panel discussion at the recent national AAACN conference.
Additionally, Cara has mentored ambulatory nurse leaders to define and determine interventions for cyber incivility and cyber aggression, and the negative impact on nurses and staff who read and respond to these hostile and inflammatory messages sent through My Health Connection. Cara has helped disseminate this work through publication in a national nursing journal.
Maria Forleo is quoted as saying, “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently”. Cara has shown that she consistently fosters and inspires a love of nursing research and innovation in others. Congratulations Cara!