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M. Rebecca O'Connor

Photo of M. Rebecca O'Connor

rebeccao@uw.edu

Associate Professor

Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing

Profile
Dr. Rebecca O'Connor is an Associate Professor in the University of Washington School of Nursing, an inaugural Betty Irene Moore Nurse Leaders and Innovators Fellow, and Affiliate Member of the Center for Pediatric Nursing Research at Seattle Children's Hospital. Her research, teaching, and service reflect her commitment to addressing bias and furthering equity, diversity, and belonging addressing bias in nursing and beyond. Dr. O'Connor recognizes that multiple historical and structural barriers in the US prevent many marginalized populations from achieving health equity and dissuades their participation in clinical research, further exacerbating inequities. To address the former, her research seeks to reduce disparities by interrupting factors like implicit bias that negatively affect health care providers’ decision-making. Her current project, IBIASTM, funded by the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship seeks to transform clinical nursing education by making implicit bias a central focus in all patient encounters throughout the undergraduate nursing program. Dr. O'Connor also provides implicit bias training for undergraduate nursing students, interdisciplinary health sciences graduate students, Seattle Children's Research Institute teams, and the National T3 Interprofessional Team Development Training for Health Sciences Faculty. To address a lack of diversity among clinical research participants, she works with Seattle Children’s and the Institute of Translational Health Sciences as they partner with communities to ensure that future research benefits us all. Through an Innovative Educator Fellowship, Dr. O'Connor collaboratively developed and leads an annual 3-day Antiracism and DEI Teaching Institute for School of Nursing faculty that resulted in statistically significant increases in DEI-related teaching self-efficacy among attendees. Dr. O'Connor received the School of Nursing’s student-nominated Excellence in Promoting Diversity Through Teaching in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2021 and the Sandra Eyres Excellence in Graduate Teaching in 2022.
Publications
  • Porter, Kathryn , Kraft, Stephanie , Speight, Candace , Duenas, Devan , Niyibizi, Nyiramugisha , Mitchell, Andrea, O'Connor, M Rebecc, Gregor, Charles, Liljenquist, Kendra, Shah, Seema , Wilfond, Benjamin , Dickert, Neal . "Research recruitment through the patient portal: perspectives of community focus groups in Seattle and Atlanta." JAMIA open 6 (2023): ooad004.
  • Lee, Mee Kyun, Walsh, Elaine, Willgerodt, Mayumi, O'Connor, M Rebecc. "School Nurses' Diabetes-Related Attitudes and Self-efficacy in Diabetes Education and Management." The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses 39 (2023): 487-495.
  • O'Connor, M Rebecc, Beard, Kenya , van Ryn, Michelle, Inevil, Samuelle , Palacios, Liliana, Strauss, Amelia, Acosta, Adrian, Rustan, Keondra, Willgerodt, Mayumi, Pintye, Jillian, Hulick, Johanna, Hirsch, Anne, de Castro, Butch. "Using equityXdesign to Develop Nursing Curricula : The Implicit Bias Clinical Teaching Program Case Study." Nurse educator 49 (0): 57-59.
Classes
  • NMETH 403: Introduction to Research in Nursing
  • NSG 552: Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity
  • NURS 419: Transition to Professional Practice
Grants
  • Reimagining the Roles of Registered Nurses as Leaders of Dementia Capable Primary and Long-Term Care,
  • Recordable Cards for Optimizing Outcomes and Reducing Disparities after ED Discharge: The RECORD-ED Pilot Study,
  • FCN SCRI Staff Assignment Agreement,
  • Development of a novel virtual reality simulation to study clinical decision-making,
  • Using cutting-edge technology as a method to study provider clinical decision-making: exploring the potential of partially immersive virtual reality using 360° video,
  • Recordable Cards for Optimizing Outcomes and Reducing Disparities after ED Discharge: The RECORD-ED Pilot Study,
  • CFPHN SCRI Staff Assignment 2023-2024,
  • Implicit Bias Teaching Protocol,
  • CFPHN SCRI Staff Assignment Agreement - O'Connor,
  • Academic-Practice Partnerships: Enhancing the Primary Care Nursing Workforce in WA State,
  • Using cutting-edge technology as a method to study provider clinical decisionmaking: exploring the potential of partially immersive virtual reality using 360° video,
  • Clinician Communication with Family Members in Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units,