A Seven-Year Journey of Creating a Culture of Care

Chamberlain University believes that students who are exposed to the concepts of care and service on a daily basis will internalize them, just as they internalize the knowledge and skills they need to master. This philosophy is built into everything done at Chamberlain and is key to student success.

Committing to the Journey

Recently, the Chamberlain community celebrated the official release of a book edited by Susan Groenwald, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, Chamberlain University president, with several chapters authored by Chamberlain colleagues.

Through a seven-year journey, Chamberlain created an organizational culture and work climate in which students and colleagues thrive – a culture where students are cared for in a way that can improve their chances of success, and that can provide an advantage in attracting and retaining high quality and effective faculty and staff. 

Chamberlain’s vision is to graduate extraordinary healthcare professionals who transform the health of people worldwide. This is done through a culture of care – Chamberlain Care^® – which focuses on three things:

• caring for ourselves
• caring for colleagues
• caring for students

“As a student at Chamberlain, I could easily recognize the way in which the organization promoted values of nursing excellence in my own learning, like self-determination, accountability, confidence, and courage,” said Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC, Executive Chief Nursing Officer of the Cleveland Clinic Health System and a 2015 graduate of Chamberlain’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. As she shared in the foreword of the new book, “I can also see the success of Chamberlain’s efforts through the many, many Cleveland Clinic nurses who are currently enrolled in Chamberlain’s programs or are Chamberlain University College of Nursing graduates.”

About the Book

Designing & Creating a Culture of Care for Students and Faculty: The Chamberlain University College of Nursing Model was released at the National League for Nursing (NLN) Education Summit, as part of the NLN tradition of publishing new works of scholarship and launching them during its annual event.

With this book, Chamberlain colleagues tell the story of what sparked the idea of Chamberlain Care, how to put it in action at the leadership level, and how faculty and students can be enculturated to become culture of care ambassadors in tangible ways.

Our hope is for the book to help influence cultural transformation in healthcare for other organizations as well. Designing & Creating a Culture of Care for Students and Faculty: The Chamberlain University College of Nursing Model is available for purchase on the NLN Bookstore at nln.lww.com.

To learn more about Chamberlain’s partnership with NLN visit chamberlain.edu/NLN.

By Meg Tokars