Valerie Joy Smith, PhD, RN, MSN, CCRN

Valerie Joy Smith, an expert in adult health/critical care/restorative nursing, has 43+ years of extensive clinical/leadership/administrative experience. She has a MSN in Adult Medical-Surgical Nursing with a Clinical Nurse Specialist focus. Her PhD in Nursing research is on spiritual well-being of adults newly diagnosed with heart failure. Areas of interest, publication, and presentation include adult acute and chronic health and wellness, palliative and end-of-life care, psychosocial and spiritual needs of patients/families, theoretical application, scholarly writing, and nursing ethics and leadership. Joy serves on a variety of School of Nursing and APU campus-wide committees. Moreover, she is a member of Sigma International/Iota Sigma Chapters, Alpha Chi National Honor Society, Heart Failure Society of America, and America Association of Heart Failure Nurses, plus maintained CCRN certification status since 1984.

Joy's commitment to Christ-centered nursing excellence is evident in her engaging teaching approach, which not only builds on a foundation of evidence-based knowledge and skill, but promotes rigorous scholarly inquiry that can be applied to address the increasing, complex realities and demands experienced in practice. She teaches for the Pre-licensure/BSN and MSN Programs at Azusa Pacific University.