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Jennifer Smalls, MS, RN, CDN
- Instructor
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(585) 395-5316
jsmalls@brockport.edu
Office: Lathrop Hall 106 H
Bio
Jennifer Smalls grew up in the Finger Lakes area of New York with her parents and three younger sisters. She began her career in nursing as a Licensed Practical Nurse after completing the 16-month course at Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES in 1993. Her first nursing position was as a charge nurse in a geriatric unit at F.F. Thompson Hospital for two years. She moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1995 where she worked on a variety of nursing units as a traveling nurse, which included cardiology, pulmonary/vent, head trauma, peritoneal dialysis and orthopedic rehab. She moved back to the Finger Lakes area of New York in 2000 when she began her career in hemodialysis for Highland Hospital. After a couple of years, she left for an opportunity to work in pediatrics in a private physicians office but found hemodialysis to be her true passion, so she returned to dialysis in 2005. In 2009, she began working at the outpatient dialysis unit at Rochester General Hospital. She transferred to the medical-surgical unit at Newark Wayne Community Hospital in 2011 where she served as an administrative clinical leader but transferred back to the RGH outpatient dialysis unit as an administrative clinical coordinator in 2013. In 2015, she accepted the position as Nurse Educator, caring for the orientation and staff development of 80 employees in the outpatient dialysis units. She obtained her certification as a dialysis nurse in 2016.
In 2010, she was accepted into the RN program at Monroe Community College and graduated with honorable distinction in June 2011. She was the recipient of the Excellence in Nursing Award. She continued her academic journey in the RN-to-BSN program at SUNY Brockport, State University of New York three months later. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2012. In August 2012, she was accepted into the Masters of Science in Nursing Education program at Roberts Wesleyan College as the recipient of the Senator Patricia K McGee Nursing Faculty full scholarship. She was awarded the Distinguished Future Educator Award and graduated with full honors in May 2014.
Jennifer joined the faculty at the College in 2014, teaching primarily in the RN-BSN program. She is serving as the course coordinator for the Evidence-based Nursing Practice Seminar courses and the on-line Health Assessment course. She also teaches the Introduction to BSN Practices bridge course and Community Health Clinical. She has served as the lead faculty on the Study Abroad trip to Peru since 2015.
Jennifer spends most of her free time with her husband and three children. Her older two children are currently college students and her youngest is in middle school. She is an avid football fan. She also enjoys reading, watching movies and traveling.