Communication Skills For The Health Care Professional

Gwen van Servellen, RN, PhD, FAAN is a Professor Emeritus from the School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles where she served as Section Chair of the Acute Care Section and the Psychiatric Mental Health Section. Additionally, she has consulted and taught abroad and extensively in the United States. Most recently she served as Interim Associate Dean of Research and Extramural Affairs, College of Nursing, Denver, University of Health Sciences Center. She is a fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Nursing. She is an active consultant in curriculum development for graduate programs in nursing and development of research expertise in faculty building research programs in the areas of adherence to treatment, utilization of health care services, and psychosocial components and quality of life in persons with chronic illness. She is the author of seven textbooks, one of which won the American Nurses’ Association Book Award and one which was translated in Japanese. She has authored or co-authored over 70 peer reviewed articles in a variety of professional journals. She is a reviewer for numerous journals, including Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Patient Education and Counseling, Psychology, Health and Medicine, Psychiatric Services, Quality of Life Research, and International Journal of Nursing Studies, Journal of Critical Care Nursing, Clinical Nursing Research, Western Journal of Nursing Research, AIDS Care, AIDS Patient Care and STDs, and AIDS and Behavior. She is on the editorial board for the international journal, Nursing and Health Sciences. She served on UCLA’s Protection of Human Subjects Committee for over seven years and is deeply concerned about low literate individuals’ understanding of the research and consent process.