Body
Growing up in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Linda Ehrlich-Jones thought she wanted to be a high school biology teacher. But when she got to Knox College in downstate Galesburg in the 1970s, she realized there was a glut of teachers looking for jobs that didn’t pay very much. A friend of hers was in a joint program between Knox and Rush University’s College of Nursing in Chicago. The program took five years but when students were finished, they had two degrees, a bachelor of arts from Knox and a bachelor of science in nursing from Rush. Ehrlich-Jones signed up.
She had already been a candy striper in high school, spending her Friday nights feeding veterans and listening to their stories at a nearby VA hospital, so she had an inkling of what nursing might be like. But she wasn’t completely sure she had made the right choice until the summer after her first year at Rush. On her first day as a nursing assistant at Rush University Medical Center, she was helping a patient who had just had surgery on her neck and the wound was coming open. “I took one look at that and thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this.’ But I did. I made it through, so I thought, ‘I can do this.’”
I think MI is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s a really good way to empower people to do more.
Linda Ehrlich-Jones, RN, PhD
Body
Ehrlich-Jones received her two degrees in 1980 and began working full-time at Rush. She liked developing relationships with patients but after four years, she realized it was time for a new challenge. Her choices were either to move into nursing management or go to graduate school. She took Door Number Two and ended up with a master’s degree in nursing from Loyola University Chicago and clinical experience in rheumatology at Michael Reese Hospital on Chicago’s South Side.
She stayed at Reese after her degree and became close with other specialist nurses there. Two of them were in a doctoral program at the University of Illinois Chicago, and Ehrlich-Jones decided to follow in their footsteps. UIC wanted her to be a full-time student but she encountered obstacles in her personal life that didn’t allow that. She continued to work full-time and attend classes on a part-time basis. In all, she spent 12 years getting her PhD in nursing science, which was awarded in 2001.
After a three-year stint teaching undergraduate nursing at Northern Illinois University, Ehrlich-Jones took a position at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s education department, which was known then-and now- as The Academy. A rheumatologist was looking at whether increasing physical activity in people with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis reduced pain and improved function. He asked for her help. Ehrlich-Jones received training in a skill called motivational interviewing (MI), an evidence-based counseling style that involves the therapist asking open-ended questions and guiding the conversation to reinforce their client’s positive intentions. “I drank the Kool-Aid,” she says laughing. “I think MI is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s a really good way to empower people to do more.”
She arrived with superb teaching and education administration skills ... , which has allowed her to build a funded research portfolio around that.
Allen Heinemann, PhD
Body
Ehrlich-Jones became a full-time clinical research coordinator in 2005. She also began working with the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at RIC, which is now known as the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Much of her CROR research has focused on whether MI can improve the lives of people with disabilities ranging from Parkinson’s disease to lupus. “To me, it’s a real rush when people say, ‘I never thought I could do this.’ It’s one of the best pieces of what I do.” She was named Associate Director of CROR in 2020.
“Linda has been a great partner,” says CROR Director Allen Heinemann, PhD. “She arrived with superb teaching and education administration skills and has developed an expertise in motivational interviewing methods, which has allowed her to build a funded research portfolio around that theme.”
Ehrlich-Jones’ decades of work and research was recently recognized by the American Academy of Nursing, which named her a fellow to be inducted this fall. The fellowship, which is awarded to distinguished nurse leaders, is the highest accolade in nursing and has only been given to 2,900 people around the world. After she got word that she had been accepted, Ehrlich-Jones made several calls to her research mentors: “Without them, I wouldn’t be here now.”