Faculty and Staff Profile

Linda Ward

Educational Background

PhD Nursing
Washington State University 2011

MN Nursing-Family Nurse Practitioner
Washington State University 2002

BS Microbiology
University of Washington 1970

BSN Nursing
Washington State University 1997

Courses Taught

HCG 9330, Interdisciplinary Research
Nursing 323, Nursing in the Genome Era
Nursing 799, Dissertation Research
Nursing 567, Primary Care of Families: Adults and Elders
Nursing 570, Clinical Decision Making
Nursing 317, Health Assessment

Profile

Linda Ward is an associate professor at Clemson University School of Nursing. She came to Clemson in 2018 from Washington State University, Washington’s land grant university in Spokane. Dr. Ward’s early career was as a laboratorian in analytic chemistry and clinical microbiology. In 1995, she turned to the nursing profession, earning a BSN and working as an RN as she continued her education to become a family nurse practitioner and nurse educator. Her practice as a nurse practitioner was in primary care, home health, and student health. In 2003, she completed a genetics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, which led her to pursue a nursing doctoral degree. Her dissertation and research focus on integration of genetics and genomics into nursing education. Dr. Ward developed the Genomic Nursing Concept Inventory (GNCI), an instrument to measure knowledge of genetic and genomic concepts essential to nursing practice. The GNCI has been validated among nursing students, nursing faculty and practicing nurses, and data inform evidence-based approaches to genomic nursing education. Dr. Ward implemented the Genomic Nursing Cyberhub, a web-based platform that supports faculty deployment of the GNCI to inform curricular planning and evaluation. Dr. Ward has published several manuscripts around genomic nursing education and holds a genetic nurse education expert designation through the National Human Genome Research Institute. She has also written several genetics chapters for nursing texts. She served on the editorial board of G2C2, an NIH-based repository of genetic and genomic education resources, and served a four-year term on the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) with the CDC.

Research Interests

Genetic-genomic education for healthcare providers
Interprofessional education for healthcare providers
Mitochondrial disease

Research Publications

Read, C. Y., & Ward, L. D. (2018). Misconceptions about genomics among nursing faculty and students. Nurse Educator, 43(4), 196-200. doi:10.1097/NNE.00000000000000444

Ward, L. D., Barbosa-Leiker, C., & French, B. F. (2018). Item and structure evaluation of the Genomic Nursing Concept Inventory. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 26(1), 163-175. doi: https://doi.org/10.1891/1061-3749.26.1.163

Ward, L. D. (2017). Utilizing biology education research and qualitative inquiry to inform genomic nursing education. Nurse Educator, 42(6), 303-307. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000378

Ward, L. D., Purath, J., Barbosa-Leiker, C. (2016). Assessment of genomic literacy among baccalaureate nursing students in the United States: A feasibility study. Nurse Educator, 41(6), 313-318. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000272

Ward, L. D., Bray, B.S., Odom-Maryon, T. L., Richardson, B., Purath, J., Woodard, L.J. Kobayashi, R., Beary, J., Willson, M. N., Clauser, J. M., & Fitzgerald, C. (2016). Development, implementation and evaluation of a longitudinal interprofessional education project. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 3, 35-41. doi:10.1016/j.xjep.2016.04.003

McCabe, M., Ward, L.D., & Ricciardi, C. (2016). Web-based assessment of genomic knowledge among practicing nurses: A validation study. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 47(4), 189-196.

Ward, L. D., French, B. F., Barbosa-Leiker, C., & Iverson, A.E.F. (2016). Application of exploratory factor analysis and item response theory to validate the Genomic Nursing Concept Inventory. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(1), 9-17. doi:10.3928/0148483420151214-05

Read, C. Y., & Ward, L. D. (2016) Faculty performance on the Genomic Nursing Concept Inventory. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(1), 5-13. doi:10.1111/jnu.12175

Senger, B.A., Ward, L. D., Barbosa-Leiker, C. L., & Bindler, R. C. (2016). The parent experience of caring for a child with a mitochondrial disease. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 31(1), 32-41. doi:10.1016/j.pedn.2015.08/007

Senger, B.A., Ward, L. D., Barbosa-Leiker, C. L., & Bindler, R. C. (2016). Stress and coping of parents caring for a child with mitochondrial disease. Applied Nursing Research, 29(1), 195-201. doi:10.1016/j.apnr.2015.03.010

Ward, L. D., Haberman, M., & Barbosa-Leiker, C. (2014). Development and psychometric evaluation of the Genomic Nursing Concept Inventory. Journal of Nursing Education, 53(9). 511-518. doi:10.3928/01484834-20140806-04

Kardong-Edgren, S.E., Starkweather, A.R., & Ward, L.D. (2008). The integration of simulation into a clinical foundations of nursing course: Student and faculty perspectives. International Journal of Nursing Educational Scholarship, 5(1), Article 26.

Honors and Awards

Sigma Theta Tau International. Delta Chi Chapter-At-Large Excellence in Nursing Research Award. Presented March 28, 2017 at the STTI Induction and Awards Ceremony, Spokane, WA.

International Society of Nurses in Genetics (ISONG) Founders Award in recognition of excellence in genomic nursing education. Presented August 5, 2016, at the ISONG annual congress, Dublin, Ireland.

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