Carol A. Reineck, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.A.A.-B.C., recently was named chair of the Department of Acute Nursing Care.
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Carol A. Reineck, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.A.A.-B.C., holder of the Amy Shelton & V.H. McNutt Endowed Professorship of Nursing, recently was named chair of the Department of Acute Nursing Care at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The former Army colonel joined the School of Nursing in 2001, upon her retirement as chief nurse executive of the U.S. Army Medical Command worldwide.

“Dr. Reineck is an ideal leader for this department because of the military’s focus on providing acute care for injured soldiers and caring for their families,” explained School of Nursing Dean Robin D. Froman, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N. “Besides her strong background in administration and as a clinical nurse, she has been involved in nursing education and research for many years. Her induction as a fellow into the prestigious American Academy of Nursing in September also shows that she is top-notch nationally and internationally in the field of nursing.”

Military nursing led to an exciting career
Growing up in a midsized Idaho paper mill town in the 1960s, Dr. Reineck chose nursing because it was one of a few career fields for women. However, where that career has led has been extraordinary.

“My older brother Al was an Army infantry captain,” she explained. “He told me there might be opportunities for me in the Army. I went to see the recruiter and did not hesitate to sign up,” Dr. Reineck said. During her 31-year military career, she completed four educational degrees including a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, master’s degrees in adult education and medical-surgical nursing, and a doctorate in nursing research.

Sharing the leadership
Dr. Reineck said one of her most exciting assignments was as head nurse of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Walter Reed Medical Center in the early 1980s. “I had just earned my master’s degree from the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio,” she said. “At the time, Walter Reed was home to the largest SICU in the free world military, so it was exciting to be in charge of this big unit. But it was overwhelming, too.”

At that time, many of the soldiers who had served in Vietnam were maturing and had a variety of diseases and conditions that required surgery, such as abdominal and brain tumors, heart problems and aneurysms. The state of surgery then involved opening patients from “stem to stern” instead of the minimally invasive endoscopic procedures available today. “There were just many, many patients who needed extended nursing care because of the invasive surgical procedures of that time,” Dr. Reineck explained.

Dr. Reineck realized that she needed help in organizing and providing the best possible care. “I asked for volunteers who wanted to help lead this unit with me. Four military nurses and one civilian nurse raised their hands. With that, we had one of the first examples of shared governance, which is used much more commonly today. And we were able to accomplish absolutely impossible things by working together.” Dr. Reineck said.

She has incorporated the shared leadership style ever since and recently wrote a book chapter based on shared governance in the book “Leadership in Place: How Academic Professionals Can Find Their Leadership Voice,” published earlier this year.

Continued collaboration key in her career
Bringing people together to work toward shared goals continues to be a major theme in Dr. Reineck’s work. With a group of national administrative nursing leaders, she just completed development of an online course for nurse managers, “Essentials of Nurse Manager orientation,” a joint project between the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the American Organization of Nurse Executives.

In order to better prepare nurses for the civilian workplace, Dr. Reineck has been working with the American Organization of Nurse Executives and the Council on Graduate Education for Administration in Nursing to develop a standardized curriculum and evaluation process. This model is now being translated into Japanese.

In San Antonio, where many hospitals and clinics have individualized procedures for orienting nursing students for clinical education, she is working with the Nurse Executive Forum, part of the Greater San Antonio Hospital Council, to establish a standardized process to get nursing students into their clinical education experiences more efficiently.

Preparing more nurses for the future
Another major project in the works is assisting the School of Nursing in a conversation with the Army to help prepare more military nurses at the UT Health Science Center as the Army Medical Department settles its tri-service training in San Antonio.

“I guess we’ve come full circle,” she said, looking back on the days when her nursing team cared for the many veterans recovering from major surgery at Walter Reed. “With the war in Iraq, many soldiers are coming home with injuries that require longer hospital stays, rehabilitation and care from highly qualified nurses. In the civilian sector, the aging Baby Boomers will also need many more nurses than we have right now,” she said.

“I thought my culminating experience in the military was going to be the pinnacle of my career,” Dr. Reineck said. “But helping prepare nurses for the future ― this is really the mountaintop.”