Diana Swihart, PhD, DMin, MSN, CS, APN, RN-BC

Diana enjoys many roles in her professional career, practicing in widely diverse clinical and nonclinical settings. She is currently the Magnet Program Director at the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System, Bay Pines, Florida. An author, speaker, and educator, Diana holds graduate degrees in nursing and leadership and doctorates in theology and ministry. She provides operational leadership for the shared governance process for the Bay Pines VAHCS and serves as a liaison to help facilitate the application of evidence-based practice and nursing research. Click on the photo below to hear what Diana thinks about shared governance.

She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International, the National Organization of VA Nurses, the Veterans Educators Integrated Network, and several professional advisory boards (Staff Educator; Magnet Status Advisor; and Advance for RNs editorial advisory board). Diana has published and spoken on a number of topics related to nursing, shared governance, competency assessment, continuing nursing education, nursing leadership, Magnet Recognition Program^®, professional nurse development, building effective preceptorships, and evidence-based practice in clinical settings both locally and nationally. She published Shared Governance: A Practical Guide for Reshaping Professional Nursing Practice in 2006. She served as an ANCC Magnet appraiser for six years and and the treasurer for the National Nursing Staff Development Organization for four years. She currently serves as a commissioner on ANCC's Commission on Accreditation.

Diana believes deeply in partnerships in healing and professional practice. She was one of the U.S. delegates to the inaugural meeting in Scotland for the International Virtual Nursing School think tank to participate in the design and development of the curriculum and learning objectives for a repository for global schools of nursing to collaborate in this project. She is an educator, researcher, author, speaker, and mentor. Her training and multidimensional experiences give her a broad and balanced perspective of nursing that influence and color all that she does as she creatively challenges and encourages others in professional practice environments of care.