New Director of Nursing Practice Named for Nurses A...( SEATTLE Sept. 11 -- Washington s...),Health

SEATTLE, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Washington state nursing leader Sally Watkins, PhD(c), MS, RN, has been named the Director of Nursing Practice, Education, and Research by the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), the State's oldest and largest professional nurses association and union.

"We are very fortunate to have in Sally Watkins an experienced leader who will be a strong patient and nurse advocate," said WSNA Executive Director Judy Huntington, MN, RN. "We are excited by the opportunities that Ms. Watkins, with her extensive nursing practice and administration experience, brings to the WSNA's mission to provide leadership for the nursing profession and promote quality health care for consumers." Watkins will join the WSNA on October 1.

Watkins has over thirty years of nursing experience, including more than fifteen years as a nursing administrator at MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, most recently as the Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive. Her accomplishments include providing leadership at the executive level for patient safety initiatives through the development of focused strategies such as addressing safe medication administration practice and implementation of rapid response teams.

In addition, she has been a nursing educator in a variety of roles since 1984 including Clinical Faculty member of both the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle and Tacoma, and Pacific Lutheran University School of Nursing. Watkins has been an active member of the Northwest Organization of Nurse Executives and is a recent past president of the organization.

Watkins recently completed her doctoral work in Organizational Behavior and Women's Studies at the Union Institute & University in Ohio. She has a Master of Science in nursing administration from the University of Utah College of Nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas.

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