Linda Aiken

Linda H. Aiken (born July 29, 1943) is an American nurse and researcher who is currently the Founding Director for the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. She also is the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing Science and a professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Early life and education

Early life Aiken grew up in Gainesville, Florida, a college town which her family life was centered around the activities at the University of Florida. Both of her parents attended the College of William & Mary. Her role mentor was Dorothy Smith, Dean of the University of Florida's School of Nursing.

Education Aiken received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing cum laude at the University of Florida in 1964. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing in thoracic surgery in 1966.

She initially intended to be a clinician and worked at Shands Teaching Hospital for a few years before deciding to return to school. Aiken had met many influential sociologists throughout her undergraduate education and first few years working as a clinician. She went on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Medical Sociology in 1974.

Career

Following completion of her post-doc in 1974, Aiken began work as a program officer for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She served in various roles while there including Director of Research, Assistant Vice President, and Vice president.

In 1988, she joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. She has continued on the faculty at University of Pennsylvania and serves as the Clare M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing, a professor of sociology, and the Director for the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. In addition, she is a Research Associate and on the executive committee at the Population Studies Center at Penn as well as a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. She has been a visiting professor at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium since and has been an adjunct professor in the School of Nursing at Queensland University of Technology since 2011.

Research Linda Aiken has worked in the health research field for most of her career. She is an authority for causes and consequences of nurse shortages in the U.S. and globally.

Her research focuses on reducing health outcomes disparities across various patient populations. She has directed large scale studies on the impact of nursing on health outcomes of patients, including aging patients, minority patients, chronically ill patients, patients undergoing various surgical procedures, those with AIDS, and other factors.

She was an expert adviser on the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's independent commission into nursing and midwifery that published the Front Line Care (Report) in 2010.

To improve health in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Aiken collaborated with American International Health Alliance. She was a former leader for the international dissemination of the Magnet Recognition Program which includes the establishment of the four nursing programs of excellence for the hospitals in Russia and Armenia. and she was named the American Academy of Political and Social Science's 2003 Theodore Roosevelt Fellow. Aiken is also a fellow and past president of the American Academy of Nursing. Furthermore, Aiken is the recipient of six honorary doctorates.

Notable works McHugh, M., Kelly, L., Sloane, D., Aiken, L. Contradicting Fears, California's Nurse-To-Patient Mandate Did Not Reduce the Skill Level of the Nursing Workforce in Hospitals. Health Affairs, Jul 2011, 30(7): 1299–1306. Aiken, L.H. Nurses for the Future. NEJM, Jan 20 2011, 364(3): 196–198. Naylor, M., Aiken, L., Kurtzman, E., Olds, D., Hirschman, K. The Care Span: The Importance of Transitional Care in Achieving Health Reform. Health Affairs, Apr 2011, 30(4): 746–754. Vahey, D.C., Aiken, L.H., Sloane, D.M., Clarke, S.P., Vargas, D. Nurse Burnout and Patient Satisfaction. Medical Care, 2004, 42(2): Suppl, II57-66. Rogers, A.E., Hwang, W.T., Scott, L.D., Aiken, L.H., Dinges, D.F. The Working Hours of Hospital Staff Nurses and Patient Safety. Health Affairs, 2004, 23(4): 202–12. Aiken, L.H. Achieving an Interdisciplinary Workforce in Health Care. NEJM, 2003, 348(2): 164–6. Aiken, L., Clarke, S., Cheung, R., Sloane, D., Silber, J. Educational Levels of Hospital Nurses and Surgical Patient Mortality. JAMA, 2003, 290(12): 1617–23. Clarke, S.P., Aiken, L.H. Failure to Rescue. American J of Nursing, 2003, 103(1): 42–7. Aiken, L., Clarke, S., Sloane, D., Sochalski, J., Silber, J. Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality. Nurse Burnout and Job Dissatisfaction. JAMA, 2002, 288(16): 1987–93. Cooper, R.A., Aiken, L.H. Human Inputs: The Health Care Workforce and Medical Markets. JHPPL, 2001, 26(5): 925–38. Aiken, L., Clarke, S., Sloane, D., Sochalski, J., Busse, R., Clarke, H., Giovannetti, P., Hunt, J., Rafferty, A., Shamian, J. Nurses' Reports on Hospital Care in Five Countries. Health Affairs, 2001, 20(3): 43–53.