Debbie Saber
Education
- Vanderbilt University, 1980, BSN
- DePaul University, 1985, MS-Nursing Administration
- University of Central Florida, 2012, Ph.D.
Research Interests
Debbie Saber is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing with over 25 years of adult and pediatric critical care experience, and works as an evidence based practice/research Chair at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, a faculty member in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (GSBSE), and a Faculty Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions (Mitchell Center). Dr. Saber teaches Pathophysiology and Adult Health III.
Dr. Saber’s research revolves around the healthcare work environment. She directed a meta-analysis aimed at determining the largest, moderate, and smallest predictors of job satisfaction for front-line registered nurses using study data from 1980–2009. Her current research focuses on environmental sustainability efforts. As a healthcare industry expert, she examines solid and food waste within healthcare environments. She recently conducted a study about solid waste that is generated from patients in multi-drug resistant organism isolation rooms and found that personal protective equipment (PPE) accounts for 43% of the waste in medically stable isolated patients. Currently, she is part of an interdisciplinary environmental sustainability team (nursing, environmental engineering, food science, economics, psychology, and anthropology) at the Mitchell Center that has been funded to examine food waste with a team of interdisciplinary undergraduate students.
Selected Publications
- Saber, D. (accepted). Healthcare’s Role in Environmental Sustainability: Nurses Are Needed to Guide Efforts! American Nurse Today.
- Saber, Deborah A., and Linda Silka. “Food Waste as a Classic Problem That Calls for Interdisciplinary Solutions: A Case Study Illustration.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 76, no. 1, Mar. 2020, pp. 114–122. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/josi.12372.
- Dreyer, S. J., Kurz, T., Prosser, A. M. B., Abrash Walton, A., Dennings, K., McNeill, I., Saber, D. A., & Swim, J. K. (2020). Towards a Psychology of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Costs and Opportunities. Journal of Social Issues, 76(1), 136-149. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12361
- Saber, D., Howlett, B., Waterman, T., deTantillo, L. (2018). Solid Waste and Disposal Processes for Isolated Patients with Infectious Disease. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(2). doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No02PPT33
- Saber, D. (2017). Disposal of medical wastes from infectious hospitalized patients: A mandate for re-examining current practices. The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability. Retrieved at https://umaine.edu/spire/
- Saber, D., Strout, K., Swanson-Caruso, L., Ingwell-Spolan, C. (2017). An Interprofessional Approach to Continuing Education with Mass Casualty Simulation: Planning and Execution. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 48(10), 447-453.
- Strout, K., Saber, D., Swanson-Caruso, L., Ingwell-Spolan, C., Koplovsky, A., Caron, E., Federico, J., Hulst, C., Etro, I., (2017). Interprofessional mass casualty incident simulation design protocol to prepare prelicensure nursing students to respond to a disaster. Nurse Educator, 42(5).
- Saber, D. (2014). Front-line registered nurse job satisfaction and predictors over three decades: A meta-analysis from 1980-200. Nursing Outlook, 62, 402-414. doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2014.05004
- Saber, D. (2013). Generational differences of the front-Line nursing workforce in relation to job satisfaction: What does the literature reveal? The Health Care Manager 32(4), 329-335.
