Education
Bernadette M. Melnyk, PhD, chief wellness officer at The Ohio State University, analyzes the U.S. healthcare system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the latest installment of Innovators. The outbreak was destined to be a global crisis, Melnyk said. However, in her estimation, it was made far worse by our less-than-ideal response to it. Melnyk blames, among other things, a lack of coordination and cooperation by health officials at the federal, state, and local levels. The result, she said, was a frenzied, haphazard approach that has left the general public drowning in a flood of information, often contradictory and sometimes just plain wrong. In addition to holding a bachelor’s degree and a master's degree in nursing and a doctorate in clinical research, Dr. Melnyk is a registered nurse, a certified psychiatric- mental health nurse practitioner, and a certified pediatric nurse practitioner. She’s a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), the National Academies of Practice (NAP), and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). Innovators is a podcast production of Harris Search Associates. *The views and opinions shared by the guests on Innovators do not necessarily reflect the views of the interviewee's institution or organization.*