SPOTLIGHT ON: Dianna Copley DNP, APRN-CNS, ACCNS-AG, CCRN
By matt skoufalos ianna Copley’s nursing career has been one of continuous education, marked by an interest in caring for others, a wealth of positive mentors and a desire to remain close to her Ohio roots.
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Copley pursued a career in nursing directly out of high school, enrolling in an associate degree in nursing program at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio. She graduated in 2008 and started at Cleveland Clinic − the only place she’d wanted to work. In the same month she started her nursing practice, Copley also began the course
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of study for her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Akron. “I didn’t apply for a lot of positions,” Copley said. “I was hoping that I would get a job in the surgical intensive care unit, where I’d wanted to work.” During her associate degree program, Copley had worked in a much lower-acuity ICU; at the Cleveland Clinic, her patients were much sicker than she’d expected, but she thrived because the unit there functioned with “phenomenal” teamwork. Copley so appreciated its camaraderie and professionalism, that after completing her bachelor’s degree in May 2010, she chose to
remain with the unit. “I think the teamwork’s really what makes that unit,” Copley said. “Even the days where I wasn’t quite sure and had a lot of questions, I knew somebody was going to be there to answer them.” Copley eventually took a PRN position as she began to explore the next steps in her professional education. Her interest in bringing evidence-based medicine to the bedside practice led her into a master’s degree program at Kent State University, which she completed in 2015. Subsequently, Copley began working as a clinical nurse specialist in the hospital medicine service
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