Professor and Division Chair
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
Cheryl B. Jones, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. , is a Professor and the Chair for the Division of Health Care Environments in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also a Research Fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and a Research Consultant to the Nursing Division at UNC Hospitals. From 1998 - 2000 she served as Senior Health Services Researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and completed a Primary Care Policy Fellowship in the U.S. Public Health Service. A leader in nursing health services research, Cheryl has devoted her career to studying micro- and macro-level issues in the nurse workforce to improve the work environment, inform executive practice, and address the costs and quality of health care. One of Cheryl's most notable contributions is the development, testing, and refinement of an innovative method to measure nurse turnover costs. This work is now serving as the foundation for a RWJF-funded study to examine the business case for nurse transition programs. She has studied other important and related nurse labor market issues, including nurse retention, wage differentials, employment patterns, migration and mobility. She is currently conducting a longitudinal analysis of RN data (funded by NCSBN) to examine the nature and timing of nurses' educational transitions, and how these transitions shape nurses' career trajectories. Cheryl has worked actively to raise the level of awareness of nursing health services research to improve nursing practice and healthcare delivery. One of her most personally satisfying experiences has been working with nurses, healthcare organizations and systems to build staff nurse research capacity and programs of nursing research that advance our knowledge of innovations in nursing practice. Dr. Jones is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, actively serves on national research review and expert panels, and has consulted with health care organizations, professional groups, and the federal government on matters related to health care delivery and the health care workforce. She has taught health economics, finance, policy, and administration at undergraduate and graduate levels, and she and is co-author (with Finkler and Kovner) of a highly regarded financial management text for nurse and healthcare leaders, Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives, which is now in its 4th edition. Cheryl obtained her baccalaureate degree in nursing at the University of Florida, and her master's and doctoral degrees at the University of South Carolina.