Scholar-nurse Clarann Weinert, SC asks nursing honor society members “What fires you up?” and how do you “fan the flame” that keeps that passion alive?At a conference in Chico Wednesday, Montana professor Clarann Weinert talked to nurses and nursing students about how to reach their career dreams.
She spoke about nursing, but her words could apply to any profession.
Weinert is both a scholar and a nun. Holding a doctorate from the University of Washington, she is a member of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.
She spoke at the Enloe Conference Center about her dreams of leading a life of service and of becoming a nurse-scientist.
She said she feels she’s achieved her dreams, but in ways that are perhaps somewhat surprising.
She attended the College of Mount St. Joseph, a small Catholic institution in Cincinnati and graduated with a nursing degree in 1965.
After working for some time, she said, she “began to awaken to the world of nursing research.”
One requirement for career success, she said, is making “courageous life choices.” And one of her first such choices was moving away from the security of the sisters in her order so she could attend the University of Washington.
After earning advanced degrees, she joined the faculty of Montana State University. She went there, she said, because she wanted to learn to teach.
She did learn to be a teacher, but soon she found herself wondering, “How am I going to be a nurse-scientist here? This is a teaching school. There isn’t any research going on.”
Weinert said she succeeded partly by “reaching out” for support from friends, mentors and colleagues around the country.
She’d planned to stay in Montana for two or three years and then move to a research university, but she became so interested in studying the health issues of rural areas that she stayed where she was.
One of her biggest successes has been working for and obtaining funding to start a research center at Montana State. The Center for Research on Chronic Health Conditions in Rural Areas funds small research grants and brings together researchers who share common interests.
With her own career as an example, Weinert gave her audience what amounted to a pep talk Wednesday.
Her advice included asking yourself “What fires you up?” and determining to “fan the flame” that keeps that passion alive.
One of her mentors advised her to never let a day go by without doing some work on her research, even if it was only to move a paper she was working on from one part of her desk to another.
Some of the topics Weinert has studied include the impact of spirituality on chronic illness, family strategies for caring for Native American elders, spirituality and suicide, rural women with chronic illness and reducing childhood asthma.
