Rancho Santa Fe resident joins Planned Parenthood board

Dr. Willa Fields, a resident of Rancho Sante Fe and widely published professor in the Graduate Nursing Leadership in Health Systems concentration at SDSU, recently joined the board of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. She will be serving a three-year term on the 27-member board.

Fields has a diverse background in clinical nursing, education, research, performance improvement, management, and information systems. Her research area of interest is exploration of methods and practices that improve patient safety and the provision of patient care. Specific investigations include the effects of information technology, evidence-based practice, and evaluation of hospital-based performance improvement activities. Fields was the vice president of Patient Care Systems in the Information Systems Department at Sharp HealthCare.

“As a nurse and educator I am committed to broad public access to health care services,” says Fields. “As a woman and mother of two adult daughters, I am equally committed to broad public access of reproductive healthcare. I am concerned about the limited access some women have to reproductive healthcare services, and the increasing governmental threat to this access. Advocacy activities hold the promise to expand and protect broad access to reproductive healthcare.”

Dr. Fields’ other board experience includes Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), LightBridge Healthcare Research, and Journal of Nursing Care Quality. She has been published in International Journal for Quality in Health Care, Critical Care Nurse, American Journal of Infection Control, Journal of Health Information Management, and many others.