Darrell Spurlock Jr., PhD, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF

  • Professor and Scholarship Director
  • Director of Leadership Center for Nursing Education Research
Media Expertise:
  • Nursing

Programs I Teach

Education

  • PhD, Psychology (Research) (2008)
    Capella University (MN)
  • MSN, Nursing (2003)
    Marshall University (WV)
  • BSN, Nursing (2000)
    West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WV)

About Me

I entered the nursing profession with an ADN and soon thereafter completed my BSN. My area of clinical practice was high-acuity adult critical care and emergency nursing. Upon completion of my MSN, I assumed my first faculty role and taught clinical skills to beginning prelicensure students, along with courses in nursing research, statistics, and leadership. To further develop my skills in research, quantitative methods, and psychometrics, I obtained an MS and PhD in general research psychology. My teaching focus for the last decade has been in research, statistics/quantitative methods, and measurement-related courses across all levels of nursing education.

Research Interests

Much of my scholarship over the last 5 years can be situated within the emerging field of implementation science, broadly defined as the study of methods, techniques, barriers, and facilitators to implementing research findings into health care and educational practice and policy. I have published and presented widely on measurement, test policy, and quality improvement-related topics in nursing and nursing education.

I have had investigator, co-investigator, or consulting roles on over 50 research/EBP/QI projects conducted in clinical, community, and educational settings. I have several active instrument development and transdisciplinary clinical-educational studies in progress, including work to further develop and test an objective measure of EBP knowledge for nurses, described further at http://nursingmeasure.org and a large, national study of FNP Clinical Education described further at http://nationalnpstudy.org.

Publications

Wonder, A.H., & Spurlock, D.R. (2020). A national study across levels of nursing education: Can nurses and nursing students accurately estimate their knowledge of evidence-based practice? Nursing Education Perspectives, 41(2), 77-82. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000528

Spurlock, D., & Phelan, J. (2019). Accuracy and completeness are required: A response to Dreher et al (2019). Nursing Forum, 54(4), 483–487. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12398


Spurlock, D.R., Patterson, B.J., & Colby, N. (2019). Gender differences and similarities in accelerated nursing education programs: Evidence of success from the New Careers in Nursing Program. Nursing Education Perspectives, 40(6), 343-351. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000508

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Educational Research Association (AERA), Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA), National League for Nursing (NLN)

Awards

  • Christine A. Tanner Award for Scholarly Writing, Journal of Nursing Education (2016)
  • Nancy Langston Research Award (Research Grant) (2016)
  • Fellow, Academy of Nursing Education (2015)

News

In the Media

Noteworthy

  • Darrell Spurlock, Jr., professor and director of the Leadership Center for Nursing Education Research, published an article in the Journal of Nursing Education. The article outlined the looming challenges caused by COVID-19 in how nurse researchers, who rely significantly on physical interaction to reach findings, continue to generate knowledge in the midst of temporary yet extended circumstances of social distancing.

    Share link: https://www.widener.edu/node/14761

  • Nursing Faculty and Alumni Publish in Nursing Forum

    Seven nursing faculty and two nursing PhD alumni are published in the October/December 2019 issue of Nursing Forum, a peer-reviewed journal that aims to explore, explicate or report issues, ideas, trends and innovations that shape the nursing profession. As the largest number of Widener faculty and alumni represented in a single journal at one time, the research topics range from high stakes testing, the role of nurses on governing boards, student veterans in nursing education, and the impact of table top exercises.

    Share Link: https://www.widener.edu/node/11691/