Donna Fahey
MFA, MSN, RN, CNL, CHPN, HNB-BC
Sewell, Nj
Specialties
Critical Care, Educational/Research, Holistic Nursing, Hospice / Palliative, Professional Development
Details
Professional Achievements:
Donna Fahey is the Director of the Institute for Education, Research and Innovation with Samaritan Life Enhancing Care, NJ and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, within the Program of Complementary and Integrative Health. Donna has worked at the bedside as an RN in intensive care for both the Lourdes and Virtua Health System for over 12 years, as a hospice and palliative care nurse for over 5 years, the last 4 in clinical management. Donna has worked within the CIH program since 2009.
Professor Fahey has an intense passion for enhancing her work in the clinical setting through the integration of holistic healthcare strategies, both for her patients, as well as her colleagues. She has implemented several noteworthy holistic projects at Virtua as co-chair of the system wide Holistic Committee at Virtua and previously as the Care Manager of the Intensive Care Unit at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center Lourdes, that focused on the mind, body, and spirit approach to healing and caring. Donna has developed an innovative concept for patient care called the Comfort Cart, which provides nurses with holistic healing modalities to use within the critical care environment. This innovation is currently utilized at Virtua, bringing holistic rituals to end of life care. At Samaritan, Donna has been instrumental in many performance improvement projects, including the development of an end of life ritual and an anxiety tool kit for patients/families and staff. She has presented her work at the National American Holistic Nurses Conference, the International Holistic Nursing Conference, the National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Symposium, TRENDS in Critical Care Nursing, the New Jersey State Nurses Association Conference and for the New Jersey End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium. Donna’s work has also been featured in Nursing 2016 & 2017 Critical Care, Advance for Nurses, Beginnings (an American Holistic Nurses Association publication). Donna’s work on Spirituality and Wellness appears in Complementary and Integrative Approaches to Substance Use Disorders, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., NY, 2021.
Donna earned her master’s in nursing in Clinical Nurse Leadership from Rowen University and a BSN from Drexel University by completing the ACE- nursing program. She was awarded a post-graduate Certificate in Advanced Studies of Complementary and Integrative Therapies at Drexel in 2008. Donna is certified as a Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse (CNHP), through the Hospice and Palliative care Nurse Association, Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) through the American Nurse Association, and in Holistic Nursing (BHP-BC) through the American Holistic Nursing Association. Donna current academic achievements complement her MFA from Catholic University of America and her BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Work History
Director, Boccolini Institute for Education, Research & Innovation (Samaritan) — February, 2016 to present
Adjunct Associate Faculty, Program in Complementary and Integrative Healthcare — September, 2010 to present
Education History
Rowan University
August, 2013 to December, 2016
Catholic University of America
September, 1992 to May, 1995
Drexel University
September, 2003 to September, 2004
University of Califronia, Santa Cruz
September, 1987 to June, 1991
