David A. Shields (February 15, 1947 –) was born in Steubenville, Ohio where he attended elementary and high school. While a teenager, his uncle was hospitalized and received surgery resulting in a colostomy. He was impressed and fascinated by his care. He then became an orderly in a hospital.
Shields served in the Navy as a Corpsman during the Vietnam War years. He received 9 weeks of training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He still has the books from this training. He cared for military and civilians while deployed in Vietnam.
He returned from the war to become a Patient Care Tech on the Means Hall Neurology Unit of the Ohio State University Hospitals. There he met his future wife, Deborah, who was an LPN on that unit.
Shields enrolled at Marion Technical College and earned his Associate Degree there in 1976. After graduation he returned to Columbus to work at OSU on the Neuro-pulmonary ICU. He then began his long association with Doctors Hospital North working in the Emergency Room in various roles from 1977-1991.
Shields returned to school at Franklin University and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Nursing in 1991. He then worked at Mt. Carmel East Hospital in the Emergency Room for 7 years. He returned to Doctors Hospital in 1999 and worked there into 2001. He had leadership roles in ER, PACU, Case Management and the Pain Clinic.
In 2003 Shields became a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Capital University where his wife was on faculty. In 2006 he became a Clinical Instructor and Teaching Assistant in the lab and mentoring clinical groups at Doctors Hospital. He earned his Master’s in Nursing Education from Capital University in 2006 and was promoted to Clinical Instructor and in 2009 became Assistant Professor. He also serves as the Jump Start Preceptor at Ohio Health running 6 simulations for all Registered Nurses.
Shields passion is in holistic health and end of life care. He and his wife were instrumental in establishing and incorporating holistic health into the nursing curriculum. In 2008 the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation Endorsement Project of Capital University’s nursing programs was granted and in 2013 renewed their endorsement of this program. In 2014 he received Certification in Advanced Holistic Nursing (AHN-BC) from the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation. Since 2003 he has provided free Therapeutic Touch services to faculty, staff, students, hospital patients, hospice staff and the community-at-large in Fairfield County. Since 2000 he has been a Hospice volunteer with FairHoPe Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. Lancaster, Ohio.
Shields is a recipient of numerous nursing awards including the 2013 Praestantia Award from Capital University and the 2011 Excellence in Nursing Education Award from the Ohio Nurses Association.
The David A. Shields, MSN, RN Oral History (0.25 linear feet) contains the oral history conducted March 16, 2017 by Debbie Freece.
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[Identification of item], David A. Shields, MSN, RN Oral History, SPEC.201722.SHIELDSORALHISTORY, Medical Heritage Center, Health Sciences Library, The Ohio State University.