Candace (Candy) Campbell DNP, RN, CNL, CVP, LNC, CEP, FNAP
Healthcare Subject Matter Expert, Researcher & Historian
Dr. Candace (Candy) Campbell, aka: The Innovation Nurse, aside from her academic, administrative, and clinical expertise, is an international speaker, award-winning actor, author, and filmmaker. Her mission is to create work that helps educate, empower, and entertain.
As a consultant with 40 years in healthcare, she blends her experience in art and science to achieve positive system change by working with executive leaders and corporations who want to distinguish themselves as great communicators.
The work includes strategic leadership retreat planning and facilitating various Interprofessional communication, leadership, and teambuilding programs. As an academic, Campbell’s research projects and assorted articles include inquiry on: the psycho-social effects of clinicians serving in combat; the familial psycho-social effects of having borne an extremely low birthweight baby (ELBW); the effect of elective Caesarean section on mothers and newborns; healthcare public policy in the US; the writings of the iconic polymath who launched the profession of caring, Florence Nightingale; and the Interprofessional communication impact of a process improvement program of applied improvisational exercises from the arts.
Dr. Campbell’s initial degree is in Speech Communications and Theatre/Acting. This ability of being able to imagine yourself in someone else’s skin, and not taking yourself too seriously, has supported her practice within and outside the nursing profession.
As a patient and healthcare advocate, Candy’s MSN was in Healthcare Systems Management; the master’s thesis (re: grassroots organizing and public health policy) was completed while serving as an advocate in Sacramento, with the American Nurses Association/California. A year-long advocacy (ANA AI) fellowship grant award followed; her project was to assist the Honor Society of Nursing (STTI) to win a seat at the table in the United Nations. (Done!)
Candy created Peripatetic Productions in 1995 as a vehicle to produce her first one-woman show, Whatever Happened to My Paradigm. Next, Full Frontal Nursing: A Comedy With Dark Spots, which played in San Francisco in 1998 to critical acclaim and allowed entry into ASCAP as lyricist and composer. The third solo show, the acclaimed, An Evening With Florence Nightingale: A Reluctant Celebrity, recently completed an off-Broadway run and has been presented to nursing associations and general public audiences in the United States, Canada, England, and Ireland. She has won awards as an actress (The Calling, 2002 (film); Full Frontal Nursing (stage); Funny Girl (stage), author (My Mom Is A Nurse), film maker (Micropremature Babies: How Low Can You Go?), and portrait artist (numerous festival awards).
Other books include Channeling Florence Nightingale: Integrity, Insight, Innovation, and Improv to Improve Healthcare: A System for Creative Problem Solving, the first of three books on improv, based upon her doctoral work and many years as an improv actor and coach. (The book also serves as educational material for the “Tear Down Walls and Build Bridges” corporate workshops.)
As a sought-after keynote speaker, Candy gives insights on a wide range of healthcare history, clinical research, and leadership topics. Other pursuits include performing as Nightingale, painting portraits, and playing with her grandchildren.