Deborah Ringdahl

Debbie Ringdahl, DNP, RN, CNM, is a Clinical Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Integrative Health and Healing (IHH) DNP Program at the University of Minnesota (UMN) School of Nursing (SoN). She began teaching Reiki classes for the Center for Spirituality and Healing in 2003 and since then has been engaged in scholarship and teaching that supports a more integrative model of nursing care. She is an active proponent of advancing nursing leadership within integrative health and has introduced integrative health scholarship into her undergraduate and graduate teaching within the School of Nursing. She has utilized her clinical experiences in both nurse midwifery and Reiki practice to inform her scholarship and teaching, focusing on a) integrative nursing leadership and b) use of integrative therapies for symptom management. Dr. Ringdahl obtained her DNP degree from the UMN SoN, focusing her studies on the role of nursing in the development of a more integrative model of health care. Her DNP project, Implementation of a Hospital-Based Reiki Program investigated the use of Reiki by nursing staff for symptom management of patients receiving chemotherapy. She received a 2013-2014 University of Minnesota School of Nursing Foundation grant to conduct a needs assessment for implementation of a Reiki Program on a Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit (BMT). She has served as consultant for long term care facilities to support the use of integrative therapies for symptom management and quality of life.