ANA Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation® Spotlight: Kelley Anderson, MSN-Ed, RN, NPD-BC
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Nurse helps fellow nurses reconnect with their purpose and passion for health care
Poet and activist Maya Angelou once wrote, “As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Kelley Anderson, MSN-Ed, RN, NPD-BC, has embraced this truth about the nurse-patient relationship throughout her career. While working as a nurse in oncology, she saw the lasting impact her role had on her patients and their families. This spurred her to pursue her current work in nursing professional development.
Finding Fulfillment in the Connection
For 16 years, Kelley worked as an oncology nurse, where she discovered how fulfilling relationship-based care can be.
“As nurses, we often find ourselves at the bedside in the middle of the night, talking with patients about far more than their treatment options,” she says. “We talk about what gives their life joy and meaning, and what they want their time on Earth to look like.”
For Kelley, those nurse-driven values conversations were key to ensuring her patients received the dignity and care they deserved. “Knowing what was important to my patients helped me and the care team advocate for treatment options that aligned with their goals and values,” she says.
Piloting a Program for Palliative Care
Kelley’s commitment to person-focused care paid off for her, her patients, and her hospital. Her next step was to make values conversations part of a greater system of care. “I developed system-level education for palliative care champions,” she says. “We created tools for nurses to have conversations about values with their patients, and to document them.”
The result was a care model in which patients’ values were heard and considered as important aspects of their treatment.
The Personal Impact on Patients and Families
Toward the end of her time at the cancer center, Kelley had an interaction that confirmed her beliefs about relationship-based care.
“A patient’s family member approached me,” she recalls. “The patient had been admitted when his health unexpectedly declined, and his family was faced with difficult decisions. The care team shared with the family the discussion I had documented about his wishes and values when it came to his care. Thanks to my documentation, they felt confident that they understood what he wanted them to do. It was a huge relief for them to know they were making the right decision.”
A Passion for Education and Advocacy
Kelley took her passion for education and relationship-based care to UCLA Health, where she currently works as a nursing professional development specialist. Her practice is system-level clinical nursing education, overseeing professional development for Department of Nursing leadership teams, the leadership transition-to-practice program, and relationship-based care programming for nursing.
Relationship-Based Care (RBC) and Re-Igniting the Spirit of Caring
Developed by Creative Health Care Management (CHCM), a nurse-founded consultant organization, Re-Igniting the Spirit of Caring helps nurses reconnect to their purpose — to care. “Relationship-based care focuses on the 3 critical relationships in health care,” Kelley says. “These are the relationship to self, the relationship with colleagues, and the relationship with patients and families.”
Kelley says it’s important for nurses to put equal energy into all 3 relationships. “It’s easy to prioritize patients above all else,” Kelley notes. “But it’s the relationship with ourselves and our colleagues that creates the foundation we need to deliver great care.”
Re-Igniting the Spirit of Caring is a 3-day retreat focused on RBC. Nurses have a chance to reflect on their work and their unique talents and skills. They gain insights into how to create and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships with colleagues. And they discuss ways to include patients and families as part of the health care team, so they feel valued and heard.
“The program really helps people remember their ‘why.’” Kelley says. “It gets to the heart of why we all became nurses in the first place.”
Nurse Leadership Fellowship
UCLA’s Nurse Leadership Fellowship is a transition-to-practice program for new nurse leaders. It’s aligned with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP) and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) nurse leader core competencies.
“It’s a year-long program that shares best practices for nurses moving into leadership positions,” Kelley says. “Nurses attend 16 sessions taught by subject matter experts from across the organization.”
Nurses in the fellowship participate in cohorts with 10 to 25 other new leaders. According to Kelley, this helps them develop close-knit communities where they can celebrate joys, talk through trials, and support each other. The fellowship helps them navigate challenges in a supportive environment.
“For many new nurse leaders, they’re suddenly managing people who were their colleagues yesterday. That transition can feel isolating. Our program helps them know they’re not alone.”
Never Stop Advocating
Kelley says the best thing nurses can do for themselves and their patients is to advocate. “We should always advocate for our patients,” she says. “But we should also always advocate for our well-being, for a healthy work environment, and for systems that support us. Because when we’re supported, we can be our best selves. We can provide immeasurable value and compassion to patients when they’re vulnerable and really need us.”
Kelley Anderson, MSN-Ed, RN, NPD-BC is a nursing professional development specialist at UCLA Health.
How have you found ways to reconnect with your purpose in nursing? Share your story in the comments!
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Blog #healthynurse Spotlight
12/15/2025 9:45am CST
The #healthynurse Spotlight is a shout out to nurses who are making changes in their lives to improve their health and wellness. You can too! Read their stories for inspiration here.
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