Director, Nursing Professional Practice, Sinclair School of Nursing

After beginning her University career as a staff nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Scott transitioned from patient care to patient safety and today is a world-class nursing researcher. In her work as Patient Safety Officer for the University of Missouri Health Care System, she observed clinicians suffering deeply in the aftermath of an unexpected clinical event or outcome, and she began researching the “second victim experience” and supportive interventions. Since that time her research efforts have advanced the understanding and science of this complex phenomenon affecting healthcare professionals, and she has become a leading international authority on the subject. She is the founder and coordinator of MU Health Care’s “first of its kind” peer support network, the forYOU Team. Since forYOU Team deployment in 2007, the peer support network has become a model nationally and internationally for health care organizations seeking to develop their own peer support structures. The comprehensive three-tiered model of support she developed is now known as the “Scott Model of Interventional Support.” To date, dozens of facilities have implemented the model, and more than 1,690 peer-reviewed journal articles have referenced her pioneering research.