Nursing Care for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: An Integrated Approach

Dr. Betz has worked with children, adolescents, and families for more than 30 years in a variety of roles as a clinician, educator, administrator, and researcher. She has served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, the official journal of the Society of Pediatric Nursing and Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society, since the mid-1980s. She has published extensively on topics pertaining to pediatric nursing, developmental disabilities, and health care transition planning for adolescents with special health care needs. Her textbook Pediatric Nursing Reference (Mosby, 2008) is in its sixth edition; this textbook and others she has authored have been translated into three languages. Dr. Betz has been the principal investigator for a number of extramurally funded federal and state grants and has served on a number of regional, state-level, and national professional committees representing the interests of pediatric nurses and adolescents with special health care needs and disabilities. She also served as one of the organizers and founding members of the Society of Pediatric Nursing, a national pediatric nursing association founded nearly 2 decades ago. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing of the American Nurses Association and was formerly the Chair of the Child and Family Expert Panel. In 2008, Dr. Betz received the Margaret S. Miles Service Award from the Society of Pediatric Nurses for her service and contribution to pediatric nursing.

Dr. Nehring joined East Tennessee State University in 2009. Previously, she held administrative and faculty positions at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a faculty position at Illinois Wesleyan University. She received her doctorate in nursing science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, her master’s degree in pediatric nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Illinois Wesleyan University. Dr. Nehring is nationally and internationally known in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. She wrote one of the only history books on nursing in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. She and her colleagues revised the Scope and Standards of Practice in this specialty in 2004 for American Nurses Publishing and the American Association on Mental Retardation. Dr. Nehring is also the editor of a core curriculum for nurses and health professionals specializing in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (Jones & Bartlett, 2005), an evidence-based practice book on specific health promotion topics and the research that was conducted on these topics with persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (American Association on Mental Retardation, 2005). She also co-edited a book with Cecily L. Betz on the health concerns of adolescents with special health care needs and disabilities making the transition into adulthood (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2007). She has written, presented, and consulted widely on this nursing specialty, as well as received internal and external funding for her research on people with Down syndrome and neural tube defects. Dr. Nehring is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). In 2009, she received the Leadership Award from the AAIDD.