Adaya Kirk Bayless

Adaya Kirk Bayless is the recipient of the Isabel McIsaac Scholarship. She graduated from her undergraduate program at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing as the top collegiate scholar with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a minor in Child and Family Studies. She was subsequently awarded the Tennessee Fellowship for Graduate Excellence which has allowed her to continue her education in UTK’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and PhD programs.

Adaya first began considering a career in nursing following her childhood experiences with chronic illness and her routine exposure to nurses in the hospital and clinics. She realized the impact that nurses make in the lives of their patients and was driven to provide others with the same type of support and care that she had received. She understood that she could use her academic talents and her compassion for others to create a meaningful life as a nurse. The more that she learned about nursing the more she desired to pursue advanced degrees in both clinical care and nursing research. She found her academic home at the University of Tennessee due to the outstanding support and the depth of knowledge that the Nursing faculty provided during her undergraduate career.

She is currently exploring comorbid asthma and obesity in pediatric populations with the hopes of creating theory based, multimodal, behaviorally-based interventions to aid children’s management of their chronic diseases throughout the course of their development. She aims to create media-based educational management programs that consider systems-level influences and social determinates of health in order to provide tailored assistance to children with these diseases. She hopes to use her burgeoning clinical practice in pediatrics to inform her ongoing research efforts. Throughout her undergraduate and graduate career, Adaya has presented her research at the Sigma Theta Tau International Conference in Dublin, the National Council on Undergraduate Research, Posters at the Capital, Southern Nursing Research Society, and at many colloquiums and symposiums at the University of Tennessee. She is also a member of the American Association of Nurse Practioners, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society and has received scholarships/grants from all three associations. Additionally, she has published an article entitled “Audience, Content, Media: A Literature Review about Factors to Consider When Designing Technology Based Asthma Education Programs for Children” in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior.

Adaya intends to use her nursing expertise to improve the lives of children and their families following the receipt of her PNP and PhD degrees. She is incredibly thankful to UTK’s College of Nursing faculty for their help and guidance and to Nurses Educational Funds, Inc. for their support as she strives toward her goals. She is passionate about pursuing the advancement of nursing practice as well as providing optimal care to her patients. Adaya desires to pursue the elevation of nursing practice, the wellbeing of children with chronic diseases, and the constant betterment of herself and those around her.