SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Cynthia Horton Dias completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing with a Spanish minor from Clemson University in 2006. She is currently a BSN to PhD student in the Nursing Science program at the University of South Carolina. After several years of bedside nursing experience in various medical-surgical specialties and hospitals, she first attained certification in medical-surgical nursing in 2011. She also gained hospital-based education experience as the Clinical Nurse Educator for a small community hospital with oversight of a Long Term Acute Care ICU and medical-surgical units, emergency room, and a skilled nursing unit. She was recently recognized at her hospital with an Excellence in Nursing award. Her personal experience with the high-stress environment of acute care hospitals, prompted her interest in exploring the many factors that influence nurses’ self-care experiences in the workplace. She is currently the PI for a qualitative inquiry into the dietary behaviors of shift-work nurses in hospitals. The findings from this study will inform her dissertation, which will evaluate the hospital food environment from the nurses’ perspective. She is also actively engaged in research on dietary behaviors of shift-work firefighters and an intervention study on the perceptions of a plant-based diet for African Americans. Her future program of research will focus on health promotion and chronic disease prevention through lifestyle methods, primarily diet, and will incorporate multi-level interventions.

I am a full-time graduate student enrolled in the Doctorate of the Philosophy of Nursing program at UNC Chapel Hill. I graduated from Winston-Salem State University with a Master’s degree in Nursing Education and I currently teach part-time as a clinical adjunct faculty member at a local community college. I am also a Navy reservist and I currently serve as the assistant officer in charge for a medical unit at the Naval Operational Support Command Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. I have been a critical care nurse for 13 years and I currently work prn as a staff nurse in the cardiac ICU at Forsyth Medical Center. I served as a critical care nurse in Kandahar, Afghanistan at the NATO Role 3 hospital from 2012-2013. I provided care to U.S. soldiers, Afghanistan nationals, and detainees. I have received two Navy and Marine Achievement Medals for my service in Afghanistan and my leadership role as the administrative department head at the Naval Operational Support Command Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. I also received the outstanding graduate student award from Winston-Salem State University. My research interest is how do race, age, and gender moderate the relationship between nurse-physician relational coordination, retention, and job satisfaction in military and civilian hospitals.

Upon obtaining my BSN, I started my professional nursing career in Emory Healthcare’s UHC/AACN Oncology Nurse Residency Program in 2013. Through a six-month intensive orientation, I was able to specialize in Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) and Hematology Oncology as a new nurse. I held committee positions on the inpatient unit focusing on research and fall prevention. These focuses involved quality improvement projects to reduce falls in our population and to facilitate medical research on the unit by educating and informing staff of new clinical trials and protocols. I also held the role of preceptor for both senior nursing students and new graduate nurses. In 2015, I became an Oncology Certified Nurse to further enhance my knowledge and practice. During my three and half years as a BMT nurse, I cultivated a need to have a greater, more systemic effect in this population that I felt I could not do in my current position. Specifically within this population, these patients find themselves suddenly at end-of-life from severe complications post-transplant even after remission of cancer. Given their immunodeficiency, treatments are difficult and outcomes poor, especially with graft-versus-host disease. My research interests stem from this experience and has helped fuel my professional goals, leading me to pursue a PhD in Nursing. My dissertation will examine the role of the microbiome in the development of graft versus host disease, as well as the development of associated symptoms and the impact on quality of life.

My health career goal is to provide hope and healing to all those in need. My life passion is to serve vulnerable population groups, particularly the elderly, Hispanic, mentally fragile, and Veterans as an NP and address our nation’s most pressing healthcare needs. I became aware of the historic need to help underserved populations through my family. My grandparents migrated from Mexico and exemplified the suffering and the lack of access to healthcare experienced by the poor. This background played a key part in my aspiration to be a leader, educator, and patient advocate for the most neglected. I have tried to make a difference in my community in many ways. Locally, I have been involved with multicultural groups including the KC Care Clinic, JayDoc Clinic, and Care Beyond the Boulevard as a Spanish-speaking interpreter. Internationally, I have volunteered in Latin American countries. My service trips to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and most recently Guatemala have supported underprivileged populations and enhanced my nursing decisions and actions. My activities at home and abroad have shaped me as a nurse and deepened my commitment to the complex healthcare needs of vulnerable communities. As a first-generation college student, I intend to lead an everlasting legacy as an NP. I am energized every day to improve the quality and availability of care to disadvantaged groups through advanced clinical practice and cultural sensitivity. I am eager to begin building a strong and diverse nursing workforce to advance our nation’s healthcare and global community.