FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information: Methodist Healthcare Public Relations -(210) 575-0160

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Clarice Golightly-Jenkins, PhD, MSN, RN, CNS, has been named Vice President for Education and Research for the 7,000+ employee Methodist Healthcare System in San Antonio. Joining Methodist Healthcare in 2000 as manager of the Adult Care Unit at Northeast Methodist Hospital, she assumed additional responsibility last year as clinical educator for Northeast Methodist Hospital and Metropolitan Methodist Hospital.

Golightly-Jenkins has more than 30 years’ leadership and executive management experience including Chief Nursing Officer in the Army Nurse Corps where she had executive leadership responsibility for (1) education and staff development for Army Nurse Corps officers in all nursing specialties and, (2) training for Army enlisted personnel in all medical occupational specialties. She was the principal nursing advisor to the Commandant US Army Medical Department Center and School and the Commander of the Frankfurt Army Regional Medical Center. She also served as consultant for military education and enlisted training and development to the Surgeon General (Army) in Washington, D.C.

More important than where she’s been, however, are her ideas for the future. “We see ourselves as bridge builders between facilities and campuses, to enhance the professionalism of nursing and collaborative disciplines,” says Golightly-Jenkins.

She proudly describes Methodist Healthcare’s involvement in the research initiative to create a healthy and safe workplace. A collaboration with the University of Texas Health Science Center – San Antonio School of Nursing, Dr. Golightly-Jenkins is principal investigator and Dr. Mickey Parsons (UTHSC-SA) analyzes data and consults.

“My first five years at Northeast and Metropolitan Methodist Hospitals have definitely broadened my perspective,” says Golightly-Jenkins. “Methodist Healthcare is an organization that not only allows but expects you to be involved on several levels. My participation in three Joint Commission (JCAHO) surveys here [in addition to 20-some previous surveys], work on the system-wide restraint alternatives task force and development of the integrated plan of care that we’ve instituted in rehabilitation and behavioral medicine, have certainly been opportunities for learning. From education, we follow-on with compliance and accountability, which lead to best practice. Who does that help but our patients?”

Dr. Golightly-Jenkins is a graduate of the Tuskegee University (BSN, 1968); graduate from Ohio State University College of Nursing (MSN, 1974) and earned her PhD from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio in 2003. She is a member of the San Antonio chapter of Links, Inc.

Methodist Healthcare is San Antonio’s largest and most preferred health care provider whose facilities include seven acute care hospitals: Methodist Children’s Hospital of South Texas*, Methodist Hospital, Methodist Heart Hospital*, Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital,* Northeast Methodist Hospital,* Metropolitan Methodist Hospital* and Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Hospital--Northwest. Construction on the new Methodist Stone Oak Hospital is due to begin in early 2006.

* a Methodist Hospital facility