Mentoring Matters
Lazelle Benefield, PhD, RN
Lazelle Benefield, PhD, RN (left), with Cornelia Beck, PhD, RN (right)
Lazelle Benefield, PhD, RN, (above left) wanted to improve care for older adults by addressing the needs of family caregivers who provide care from a distance. “By understanding their concerns, we can develop innovative interventions to support them,” she says.
A fortuitous meeting with Cornelia Beck, PhD, RN, Professor in the Department of Geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, helped to stimulate Dr. Benefield’s interest in increasing her research capabilities, but just as importantly it set her career on a path toward leadership in gerontological nursing. Dr. Beck encouraged Dr. Benefield to apply for a BAGNC postdoctoral fellowship. She was accepted in 2003, with Dr. Beck as her mentor. “I had been doing research on a small scale, but I needed the postdoc to successfully compete for grant funds,” says Dr. Benefield.
As a Hartford Fellow, Dr. Benefield attended the BAGNC Leadership Conferences where she acquired leadership skills and forged career-enhancing relationships with peers from across the country. But she credits her success largely to the mentoring she received from Dr. Beck, a highly regarded pioneer in nursing research.
“With guidance from Dr. Beck, I was able to move to another level of thinking, of interaction, of expectation for myself,” says Dr. Benefield.
Dr. Beck gave Dr. Benefield advice and support and introduced her to important contacts in the worlds of business and academics. Because of this entrée, Dr. Benefield was able to include a technology director, a nurse engineer, and a leading psychologist on an expert panel for a National Institutes of Health grant application. They were willing to contribute as consultants because of Dr. Beck. The research project examined distance caregiving of cognitively impaired elders living alone at home. “I believe the grant was funded, at least in part, because of the expertise of the team,” says Dr. Benefield.
After the postdoctoral fellowship ended, Dr. Beck continued to provide Dr. Benefield with career advice. Dr. Benefield was subsequently appointed to the Endowed Parry Chair in Gerontological Nursing in the College of Nursing at the University of Oklahoma. “The Hartford Fellowship laid the groundwork that brought me to this position,” says Dr. Benefield.
Looking for avenues to build capacity in geriatric nursing, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation wanted to make a grant modeled on the Hartford Foundation’s Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence. They noticed Dr. Benefield and the work she and the School of Nursing had done to build their program.
Dr. Lazelle Benefield at the Donald W. Reynolds Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence with faculty members from the Oklahoma University School of Nursing.
“Lazelle was quick to articulate what was new at the School of Nursing, what resources and infrastructure could support the center, and what more was needed,” says Rani Snyder, Senior Program Officer at the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The Reynolds Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence was funded with a $2.6 million grant in July 2008, with Dr. Benefield serving as director.
“Because of the relationships I had forged through the Hartford program, as we built the infrastructure for the Reynolds Center, we had resources around the country to draw on,” says Dr. Benefield.
“Lazelle has a vision for where she wants to go and how to get there,” says Ms. Snyder.
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