Nancy Reese

Nancy Reese has been a registered nurse since 1996, starting her journey as a certified nurses’ assistant ten years prior. Her nursing practice specialty areas are medical-surgical, specifically neurological nursing and community health. Her teaching practice spans many areas including nursing ethics, leadership, pathophysiology, pharmacology, health assessment, health policy, evidence-based practice, research, spirituality, and service learning. She has been a nurse educator since 2007.

Professor Reese has published and lectured extensively. Her works have appeared in media as diverse as the nursing textbook, Spiritual Care in Nursing Practice, various devotional books, newspaper articles, and health promotion newsletter articles. She has presented posters and spoken about parish nursing, theology, dedicated education units in nursing, and higher education at conferences, retreats, and networking events. She serves as a peer reviewer for the journal Nursing Education Perspectives. Her research areas include spiritual distress and nursing students, improving student/faculty relationships, creating clinical relationships through dedicated education units, service-learning, and quality improvement. A passion of hers is to engage and mentor students in research.

Mission and ministry are key to her life. She has acted as a team leader for 24 missions and a team member for two missions around the world. Conducting portable medical brigades in Honduras is the most frequent service activity, over fifteen trips, and she has led teams of ten to 45 people to serve there since 2002.

Local community service is a large part of her life as well. She has provided training and instruction for church caregiving groups, worked with county health department programs, and consulted on mission development. She is a volunteer with her local village’s Medical Reserve Corps and secured a grant for that group in 2021.

Prof. Reese earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Leadership and Administration from Concordia University Wisconsin, a Master’s of Science degree in nursing education from Concordia University Wisconsin, and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Concordia University Chicago/West Suburban College of Nursing. In addition, she has completed certification as a Lay Minister through Concordia University Wisconsin as well. She is a certified nurse educator, a member of the Wisconsin Organization of Nurse Leaders, a member of the National League of Nursing, a member of the Psi Lambda and Phi Beta chapters of Sigma, the international nursing honor society, the Illinois Organization of Nurse Leaders, and the Nurses’ Christian Fellowship.

• B.S. — Nursing, Concordia University Chicago/West Suburban College of Nursing
• M.S.N. — Concordia University Wisconsin, Nurse Educator
• D.N.P. — Concordia University Wisconsin, Leadership & Administration

• NSG 3015: Assuring Quality and Safety in Health Care Environments
• NSG 4026: Advanced Clinical Synthesis and Capstone

Spiritual Distress in Nursing Students and Improving Quality Metrics with clinical partners.

Grants: 2021 – NACCHO Grant for Medical Reserve Corps 2016 – City of God Grant for Service Learning Awards Awards: 2019 Hero of Nursing Award – American Red Cross 2017 Pinnacle Nurse Leader Award – Power of Nursing Leadership event 2017 National Association of Long-Term Hospitals Innovation Award

Habermeier, N. (2003) Collaboration in spiritual care. In K. Mauk & N. Schmidt (Eds.), Spiritual Care in Nursing Practice. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.