Cheryl K. Ahern-Lehmann, PhD, RN,C, ANP
Associate Clinical Professor
Email: cheryla@sandiego.edu

Cheryl Ahern-Lehmann is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Graduate Nurse Practitioner Programs. She received her MS in Community/Psychiatric Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco in 1970, and her PhD in Education, specializing in curriculum development, from the Joint Doctoral Program, Claremont Graduate University & San Diego State University in May 2000. She received national certification as an adult nurse practitioner (ANP) in 1977 and has been certified for many years as a clinical specialist in psychiatric nursing.

Areas of clinical practice experience: Adult primary care, psychiatric care, and urgent care; and she has practiced in community clinics, managed care organizations, occupational health, and student health centers. She currently practices part-time in the Student Counseling Center, USD.

Dr. Ahern-Lehmann currently teaches: Pathophysiology, adult clinical management courses for adult and family NP students, and a course in long term care for ANP students. She periodically teaches advanced health assessment. Dr. Ahern-Lehmann uses case-based, problem-based, interactive teaching approaches in her classes, and does clinical evaluation site visits.

Her research interests include: NP role definition and NP/MD collaboration; clinical evaluation of NP Students; impact life transitions on students and patients; change theory, and how to support others to make changes in their lives; the transition from RN to NP while attending education programs; teaching strategies used to support reflective practice; and clinical reasoning/decision-making.

Recent activities have included presenting her dissertation data on NP student clinical evaluation to a regional conference of Sigma Theta Tau, the 2001national NONPF Conference, and the 2001 conference of the Western Institute of Nursing. She is now working on publications from her dissertation work, and is coordinating a continuing education course on clinical teaching strategies for 16 visiting faculty from Thailand presented in June 2001. She is the advisor to both the Undergraduate Nursing Student and Graduate Nursing Student Associations, and is a member of various School of Nursing and University committees.