Faculty Feature: Brad Phillips

Caring for others has always been important to Dr. Brad Phillips, who will soon become Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academics, effective Jan. 1.

As someone who also always enjoyed science courses, when he was finishing high school and thinking about what he wanted to study in college, nursing seemed to be a perfect fit.

He got a glimpse of helping others through medical challenges when his family would dress up as elves every Christmas Eve and deliver gifts to children in the pediatric burn unit at a local hospital when he was growing up near Detroit.

“Seeing the joy and appreciation on the children and their families faces was really eye opening and it has stuck with me all these years,” Phillips, assistant professor in the West Virginia University School of Nursing, said. “That is a huge part as to why I wanted to be a pediatric nurse.”

After Phillips graduated from nursing school, he got a job in the pediatric ICU at the same hospital where he delivered gifts on Christmas Eve. Phillips worked there for eight years.

“While working in the pediatric ICU in Michigan, I started precepting and teaching clinicals and I fell in love with education,” Phillips said. “I went back to school to get my master’s in nursing education. After I graduated, I wanted to explore other places, which led me to apply at WVU.

“I fell in love with the campus and people here, and I took a position with the School of Nursing as a clinical instructor for pediatrics in January 2018. On the weekends, I worked at WVU Medicine for two years as a nurse.

“Since I loved education so much, I knew I wanted to have a career in academia and I wanted to prepare the next generation of nurses, so I went back to school to get my Ph.D.,” Phillips said. “With a Ph.D., it gives you opportunities to do research to improve health and well-being for those who you are interested in helping.”

Phillips recently earned his Ph.D. in Nursing from the School of Nursing, focusing his research on helping parents improve their health and well-being as they care for children with special healthcare needs.

“Because I worked so closely with parents in the pediatric ICU, I found that they had a lot of unmet needs,” Phillips said. “I think these parents are often overlooked and their health goes downhill quickly when they spend a lot of time focused on caring for their child. The other part of my Ph.D. research was with parents who have children who are profoundly disabled and helping them find purpose and meaning in caring for their child, just as they are.”

In his role as an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, Phillips teaches both undergraduate and graduate students. He also works on publications for his research and serves as a co-leader for the School of Medicine’s Multidisciplinary UnSheltered Homeless Relief Outreach of Morgantown program.

“I am a nurse first and a teacher second,” Phillips said. “Even though I do not practice anymore, being a nurse is who I am. What is so cool about nursing is you get to spend a lot of time with your patients and families to build relationships and get to know their goals and help them to achieve those goals. In nursing, there are so many different opportunities, whether that is going back to school to become a nurse practitioner or teaching. That is something nursing offers that other disciplines do not.”

Phillips explained that he loves teaching because he plays an intricate role in developing future nurses. He also explained that the best part about teaching are those ah-ha moments where it all clicks, and the students get excited.

“Prospective nursing students should choose the WVU School of Nursing because we have a small student-to-faculty ratio. Students can build connections with faculty members and get to know them, and vice versa, which really helps in the learning process,” Phillips said. “Our students also get to learn and work in the David and Jo Ann Shaw Center for Simulation Training and Education for Patient Safety (STEPS) and at WVU Medicine, which are both great ways to learn clinically. Also, serving the underserved rural communities of West Virginia that have a lot of comorbidities allows students to see so much that they cannot get anywhere else.

“When nursing students go back to school, they usually focus on becoming a nurse practitioner or CRNA, but they should also consider a career in nursing education,” Phillips said. “We are in a need for nurse educators to grow the next generation of nurses.”