SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Tamra Shea graduated with a BSN from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana in 1998 and an MSN in Nursing Education from Western Carolina University in 2014. Tamra is a full-time doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. With a longstanding interest in how technology influences the human experience of health and illness, her developing program of research involves increasing understanding of the patient perspective of decision-making in health care. Tamra has practiced as a clinical nurse in pediatric intensive care and maternity nursing for over ten years and has witnessed the anguish that families experience when making difficult decisions concerning the use of technology. She saw that patients and their families turn to nurses for information and support in making these difficult decisions. The trajectory of Tamra’s educational preparation and nursing practice has led her to pursue dissertation research that incorporates the patient perspective of health technologies to determine how clinicians can best provide information and support to families making difficult health care decisions. Tamra is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International and other nursing and civic organizations. She enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and four children in the mountains of western North Carolina.