Danielle Larkin, who joined AUSON in January 2021, is from the University of Alabama in Birmingham where she received a dual master’s/doctoral degree in 2020.

Larkin spent nearly 15 years in Southern California where she trained to be a nurse. Prior to receiving her bachelor’s degree in nursing from National University in San Diego in 2012, Larkin received a bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies from Goucher College, Maryland, and attended a college prep school — Cushing Academy in Massachusetts. “I've always wanted to be in the healthcare profession. When I was waiting tables in San Diego, I was inspired to go back to school to become a nurse because I wanted to combine my passion for science with caring for people of diverse populations.”

Larkin will be co-teaching pharmacology and fundamentals. “I believe students should be actively engaged in their learning. Patient education was at the center of a lot of my previous jobs. I look forward to educating student nurses so that they will have the knowledge and self-efficacy to be able to provide that same education to the patients they encounter. I want them to gain subject-specific knowledge coupled with skills that will make them excellent nurses and team players in this dynamic profession,” she said.

In Birmingham, Larkin was an Infection Preventionist at Encompass Health Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital where she worked in inpatient oncology, palliative care and hospice. As a graduate teaching assistant at the UAB School of Nursing, she worked in the simulation lab and competency suite.

Her research work has been published in the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, and she hopes to write more on symptom management and decreasing health disparities within hospice and palliative nursing.

According to Larkin, the biggest trends in educating nurses today are in case studies. “They have become really popular in nursing education today,” she said. “I utilized case studies in my academic nursing journey and found them to be extremely helpful.”

“A philosophy that guides my professional life is that personal integrity should guide every action,” she added.

We welcome Danielle Larkin and her two husky-mix puppies, Dixie Mae and Bailey Rose, to the Auburn Family.