Dr. Marita Titler Takes On Expanded Role as Newly Appointed Division III Chair
She hopes to lead the Division of Nursing Business and Health Systems to new heights of research quality and effectiveness.
Dr. Marita Titler is taking on the expanded role of Chair of Division III — the Division of Nursing Business and Health Systems — at a time when governmental healthcare policies are ripe for reform, and nurses are poised to have a strong voice in that process. This is in addition to her continued position as Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Scholarship.
Dr. Titler is very excited to be taking on this position, and she is determined to collaborate with faculty to make the University of Michigan School of Nursing a place that creates nursing leaders in health care. She believes that there is a great “potential for the School to be the number one program in terms of nursing leadership,” and that it will educate nurses to build the “health systems of tomorrow.”
Reaching that bar, she says, is a matter of redoubling the School’s efforts to instill important values through innovative teaching methods. Among these methods, Dr. Titler specified distance learning and executive learning as two important aspects of the curriculum for Division III. She also expressed the necessity to continue to “build a more robust program of health systems research” in the school.
Dr. Titler’s background speaks to her ability to further these initiatives. She has over 20 years of senior leadership experience, working with budgeting and hospital systems. “I have a really strong administrative background,” she said, adding that she hopes to implement it in educating nursing students with improving health services research.
“We can build on patient safety, quality, and leadership,” she said, explaining that to do that, it is also necessary to have programs of research in “informatics and outcomes effectiveness research.” To build programs of research in this field, Dr. Titler expressed the importance of “strengthening the methods and analytic components of leadership and effectiveness science.”
Through emphasizing strong nursing research, Dr. Titler hopes to create students who will change the nursing profession, and the health system itself, for the better. Regarding government policy, she said, “Nursing leaders can let it affect them, or we can prepare people to affect government policy.” Nurses, she explained, must become a primary source in informing decision makers on effective healthcare practices and systems of care delivery, including the need to prioritize prevention and self-care management.
These are ambitious and important goals, and the School of Nursing is well poised to meet them. Through educating students to be leaders and to never stop learning themselves, Dr. Titler hopes to build the Division of Nursing Business and Health Systems as a beacon for positive change.
