Debra Jeffs, PhD, RN
Director of Nursing Education, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/College of Nursing
Phone: (501) 364-3239

Research Overview

Debra Jeffs, PhD, RN, is the Director of Nursing Education at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where she also serves on the senior nursing management team. She oversees centralized and unit-based education for nursing at the hospital. Dr. Jeffs holds a faculty appointment in the UAMS College of Nursing as clinical assistant professor. She has more than 25 years of nursing education experience as a faculty member in traditional and distance education at the associate degree, diploma, baccalaureate and master’s degree levels.

Her areas of interests are distance education, curriculum development, educational evaluation, evidence-based practice, and pediatric pain management. Her research has focused on pediatric postoperative and procedural pain. She has previously received funding for her research from the Foundation of the New York State Nurses Association and the Delta Pi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International. She is currently interested in studying the effectiveness of tailoring nonpharmacologic interventions to the child/adolescent’s choice in an effort to reduce procedural pain perception. Dr. Jeffs’ work with the Nursing Research Alliance of the Capital District in New York State in developing online education for staff nurses on evidence-based practice has been presented at conferences and is included in the ACH Evidence-Based Practice Academy developed by Dr. Angela Green.

Jeffs, D.A. (2007). A pilot study of distraction for adolescents during allergy testing. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, 12(3), 170-185.