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 Academic Nursing Education at Arkansas Children's Hospital, where she also serves on the executive nursing leadership team and the Professional Excellence organizational council. To strengthen the relationship between academic education and clinical practice, she oversees all schools of nursing affiliations with the hospital, serves on schools of nursing advisory boards, and provides guidance to other hospital departments and disciplines with college students and interns. She advises ACH nurses about returning to school for an advanced nursing degree and has co-developed a new master's degree pediatric clinical nurse specialist program with UAMS College of Nursing. 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.

Dr. Jeffs is conducting an ACHRI ABI-funded research study to compare types of distraction including virtual reality on pain perception during burn wound care among adolescents in the ACH Burn Clinic. Her previous research has focused on pediatric postoperative and procedural pain; she received funding from the Foundation of the New York State Nurses Association and the Delta Pi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International. She is interested in studying the effectiveness of tailoring nonpharmacologic interventions to the child/adolescent's choice in an effort to reduce procedural pain perception. She collaborates with Dr. Angela Green, Director of Nursing Research, in offering evidence based practice education. 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 nationally and is included in the ACH Evidence Based Practice Academy. Her other areas of interest include distance education, curriculum development, and educational evaluation.

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

Jeffs D, Wright C, Scott A, Kaye J, Green A, Huett A. Soft on Sticks: An Evidence-Based Practice Approach to Reduce Children's Needlestick Pain. J Nurs Care Qual. 2011 Jul-Sep;26(3):208-15.