UNCG has been a touchstone in Robin Bartlett’s life and career, so receiving the School of Nursing (SON) Distinguished Alumni Award was a culmination and validation of quality nursing education and the enduring power of mentorship.
“I was really honored by my colleagues who nominated me and then to be selected,” says Bartlett ’78, ’87 MSN, who pointed to the example of excellence set by SON founding dean Eloise Lewis, during her early years.
“She had lofty goals for us when I was an undergraduate and had a huge impact on nursing in North Carolina,” Bartlett says. “I wanted to live up to that, so having this honor bestowed, it felt like I did.”
“Upon the recommendation of the School of Nursing Alumni Engagement Committee, I was pleased to present the Distinguished Alumni Award to Dr. Bartlett,” says current SON Dean Debra Barksdale. “This honor recognizes her enduring contributions to the field of nursing, which all trace back to her beginnings as a proud Spartan Nurse.”
UNCG’s Fundamental Influence
At an October 4 recognition ceremony on campus, Bartlett revisited memories and milestones as a UNCG professor and leader as well as her own student years, especially the support of key faculty like Dr. Pam Werstlein, who encouraged Bartlett to pursue graduate education.
“I’m a first-generation college student,” Bartlett says. “The idea that I had the ability to get a master’s degree wasn’t even on my radar, and that was really a sentinel event.”
“I had many experiences like that at UNCG,” Bartlett says, remembering undergraduate advisor Rachel Allred, “who taught me that a nurse needs to care for herself in order to care for others.”
Selection to a nursing honor society was another important opportunity that helped define Bartlett’s path and underscored the power of relationships.
“When I graduated with a bachelor of science in Nursing (BSN) degree in 1978, I was a fledgling nurse and knew that I didn’t know everything, but I had the tools I needed and felt really good about it,” Bartlett says. “I got my master’s degree at UNCG as well, which allowed me to become a nurse leader and then a faculty member.”
Bartlett recalls many formative experiences during her time as a full-time faculty member from 1992 through 2019, when she retired as professor emeritus: “I had colleagues who really pushed me to take risks and pursue different areas as I moved through academia. In fact, I pursued my doctoral degree while a faculty member and really felt socially and intellectually supported in that growth.”
Building an Impactful Career
Since 2020, Bartlett has been Associate Dean for Research at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing, where she is intentional about mentoring, preparing and inspiring the next generation of the profession. But building that pipeline also means extending understanding of what it means to be a nurse.
“The public thinks a nurse is a nurse, but you can be a scientist, an educator, a leader or manager,” Bartlett says. “You can do so many different things!”
Bartlett’s current projects focus on adolescents and the underserved, particularly mentorship of those from rural areas, the economically disadvantaged, and first-generation college students.
“My interest emerged from my experience in adolescent psychiatric settings,” she says. “I really love that age group, and there’s a great sense of hope when people can course-correct and get on a path to positive health and life outcomes.”
Inspiring Tomorrow’s Nurse-Scientists
As a doctoral student, Bartlett was intrigued by theories in resilience and how people bounce back from challenges, which led to intervention work with adolescents to prevent risk behaviors with potential negative outcomes.
“I was going to continue with that, but as a doctoral program director, I’ve seen how the number of Ph.D. nurses is dropping. If we’re going to advance the science of nursing, we just don’t have enough,” she says.
“I was really interested in how to increase interest in the role of nurse-scientist, particularly among minoritized groups, because we know that if we have teams from all walks of life, we will make better decisions,” Bartlett says.
“People who are sick want to be cared for by people who look like them, who understand their culture. And when we’re talking about developing new knowledge, we need to have all voices at the table.”
One project, the Health Science and Technology Academy, delivers a nursing-focused STEM education program to rural high school students: “We hired teachers in their schools for a weekly club where they do experiments and learn how to do a research project. Then every summer, we bring them to campus for a week, so they get great exposure to university life and higher education.”
Another funded project helped recently admitted college students prepare for upper-division nursing and included a summer bridge program to support general college success.
“We want to provide opportunities in nursing education and science for all people, so we can serve all patients,” Bartlett says. “I’m excited about working with students in rural Alabama, and I’m excited about my role as associate dean of research, where I am supporting faculty and helping this college and the university achieve their missions.”
Story written by Juliana Proffitt McCully, AMBCopy LLC
Photography provided by Sean Norona, University Communications
