Director, Center for Interdisciplinary
Health Workforce Studies
Institute for Medicine and Public Health
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Peter I. Buerhaus, PhD, RN, FAAN
Valere Potter Professor of Nursing
Peter Buerhaus is the Valere Potter Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studiesat the Institute for Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. From 1992-2000, he served as assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health and developed the Harvard Nursing Research Institute and a post-doctoral program in nursing health services research. During the 1980s he served as assistant to the chief executive officer of The University of Michigan Medical Center's seven teaching hospitals (1983-1986) and as assistant to the Vice Provost for Medical Affairs, the chief executive of the Medical Center (1987-1990).
Dr. Buerhaus maintains an active research program involving studies on employment and earnings of nursing personnel, implications of an aging RN workforce, nurse staffing and quality of patient care, and health professionals and public opinion on issues affecting the delivery of health care. Professor Buerhaus has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, has editorial responsibilities with many peer-reviewed health services research and nursing journals, and has advised policy makers and legislators on a wide variety of nursing health policy issues.
Dr. Buerhaus was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 1994, and elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in 2003. He is a member of the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council for Nursing Research, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Systems Nursing Advisory Committee, National Quality Forum Steering Committee on Nursing Quality Performance Measures, and a Board Director of Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Buerhaus earned his baccalaureate degree in nursing from Mankato State University, a masters degree in nursing health services administration from The University of Michigan, a doctoral degree from Wayne State University, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation faculty fellow in health care finance at The Johns Hopkins University (1991-1992).