Barbara Hernandez

Barbara Couden Hernandez, PhD, RN, LMFT, is professor of medical education and director of the Office of Physician Vitality at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. She is also adjunct professor in the Department of Graduate Religious Studies at Fordham University.

She holds nursing degrees from Atlantic Union College and California State University, Fullerton, a master's degree in marriage and family therapy from Loma Linda University, and a PhD in family social science from the University of Minnesota.

Hernandez worked as an intensive care nurse for nearly 20 years. She has taught in higher education in a wide variety of mental health, public health and medicine programs, as well as supervised therapists in training since 1995. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, she has directed counseling at university and training clinics and maintained a private practice for many years. Her publications address the integration of spirituality in clinical practice, reflective clinical education, ambiguous loss, and intimate partner violence experienced by physicians.