NOTEWORTHY

Donna Mazyck has assumed the office president of the National Association of School Nurses for the 2007-09 term.

Ann Mech, coordinator of legal affairs at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, has been elected secretary of the Howard County General Hospital board of directors.

Bernadette Melnyk, dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing at Arizona State University’s College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, has been appointed to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Melnyk joins two other nursing leaders on the task force, Carol Loveland-Cherry, professor and executive associate dean at University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor and Lucy Marion, dean and professor at Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing in Augusta, Georgia, The task force was started in 1984 by the U.S. Public Health Service. Since 1998, it has been sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The USPSTF conducts rigorous, impartial assessments of the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of a broad range of clinical preventive services, including screening, counseling, and preventive medications and its recommendations are considered the “gold standard” for clinical preventive services.

Linda Mottle, clinical professor at Arizona State University (ASU) College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and director of the Clinical Trials Research Management Program, has been named director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials (CHI&CT), an interdisciplinary initiative to help bring innovative health care products to market. The initiative was undertaken by the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation in partnership with Innovation Space, an ASU entrepreneurial joint venture with the College of Design, the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering, the W.P. Carey School of Business and AZ Technology, or AzTe. It is funded by a five-year “University as Entrepreneur” grant awarded to Arizona State University by the Kaufman Foundation.

Nancy Munro, clinical instructor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, has been selected as chairperson of the Advanced Practice Institute of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

Robin Newhouse has been named assistant dean for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program and associate professor at University of Maryland School of Nursing, Department of Organizational Systems and Adult Health. Newhouse, who has 30 years of clinical and leadership experience, most recently served as a nurse researcher at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University, where she built a program of evidence-based practice and research, teaching research and outcomes courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Newhouse also recently received a two-year, $300,000 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative for her study, “Rural Hospital Quality Collaborative on Evidence-Based Nursing.” The study, the purpose of which is further understanding of the linkages between processes of nursing care and quality of patient outcomes, will identify facilitators and barriers to successful adoption of research findings that relate to improvement of nursing care in rural hospitals.

Judy Ozbolt, professor at University of Maryland School of Nursing, received a three-year, $950,544 grant from the Division of Nursing, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), for her study, “Nursing Informatics Program Focused on Diversity and the Underserved.” The purpose of the project is to increase, by revising and expanding the School of Nursing’s master’s and post-master’s online informatics programs, the number of diverse, culturally competent nursing-informatics specialists. The grant will enable the school to hire more nursing informatics faculty and upgrade Web-based courses.

As principal investigators for the “Center for Nursing Success” program, Karen Papastrat and Sharon Wallace, both of whom are instructors and assistant deans at Jefferson School of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, have been awarded a 2007-08 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Grant in the amount of $88,200.

Gary Dean Parker of Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was named national winner of the 2007 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award in the registered nurse category: “After a young woman died in his ER from self-inflicted wounds, he became a crusader against suicide, the second leading cause of death for young Oklahomans. Through extensive research, Parker became an instrumental part of the training process for youth suicide prevention and intervention programs in place by the state and has taught more than 2,200 doctors, nurses, teachers and school counselors. Mercy Health Center adopted his program and one of the state’s premier nursing schools now includes it in their curriculum. He has presented his findings on a state level and at an international health conference in China.”

Lynn Pearcey, dean of the School of Nursing at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has been elected vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board’s Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing. Pearcey, whose term will run from 2007 to 2009, has previously chaired the council’s workforce diversity and program committees.

Virginia Peragallo-Dittko, director of the Diabetes Education Center at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, USA, received the Outstanding Educator in Diabetes Award from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in June. The award is given to stimulate and acknowledge outstanding educational efforts by health professionals in the field of diabetes. Peragallo-Dittko is also part of the clinical faculty in the graduate departments of City University of New York Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Molloy College Department of Nursing, and Adelphi University School of Nursing, and currently serves as editor-in-chief of program publications for the ADA.

Sandra Picot, associate professor at University of Maryland School of Nursing, has been awarded fellow status by the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). GSA fellows represent the highest class of membership and are recognized by their peers for outstanding contributions to the field of gerontology.

Rosemary Polomano, associate professor of pain practice at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, is featured in the cover story of Heal, published by the American Cancer Society. In the article, she discusses the incidence of pain in cancer survivors and notes that little is known about how patients decide whether to seek chronic pain treatment. Some may be told by their health professionals that their pain will probably improve, so they wait and delay treatment. Many patients, notes Polomano, worry that the medicines might interfere with their lifestyle, but adds, “We can be successful in finding a balance.”

Sandra F. Ryan, Take Care Health Systems’ Chief Nurse Practitioner Officer, received the 2007 Nancy Sharp Cutting Edge Award in October at the American College of Nurse Practitioners’ National Clinical Conference. The award, inaugurated in 1996 in honor of Nancy Sharp, ACNP’s first executive vice president, is presented to an individual nurse practitioner (NP), nurse or lay person who has demonstrated extraordinary belief in NPs and contributed to efforts to improve the image and visibility of the profession. The award is the most prestigious honor given each year by the ACNP. Take Care Health Systems is one of the largest managers of convenient care clinics and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, Ryan is one of six founding officers of Take Care Health Systems.

Steven Simmons has been appointed clinical instructor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Prior to assuming his new duties, he worked as a family nurse practitioner at Family Medical Centers in Florida.

Elizabeth Speakman, instructor at Jefferson School of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, has received a $10,648 educational grant for 2007-08 from Association for Prevention Teaching and Research to fund “Working together: A collaborative approach to disease prevention education.”

Margaret Talley of Palomar Pomerado Health in Escondido, California was named grand-prize winner of the 2007 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award in the advanced practice nurse category for the following achievement. “Upon discovering a much higher rate of pressure ulcer prevalence than the national benchmark, Talley took an existing wound care program to the next level by first initiating a one-on-one mentoring process with the RN skin team. With Talley leading the team’s outreach activity, the percentage of medical patients with hospital-acquired pressure ulcers dropped from 10 percent to three percent.”

Mary S. Tilbury, associate professor at University of Maryland School of Nursing, is one of 10 nurses invited to serve on the Nursing Administration, Advanced Concept Expert Panel by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).  The panel will conduct a role delineation study that will serve as the foundation for the nursing administration advanced certification exam offered by the ANCC.

Judy Trivits Verger, nurse practitioner in the critical care department at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is primary editor of a procedure manual for pediatric care, sponsored by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The 1500-plus page Procedure Manual for Acute and Critical Care includes contributions of 30 nurses from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. As editor, Verger collaborated on the book with Ruth M. Lebet, clinical nurse specialist at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.

Marisa Wilson, assistant professor at University of Maryland School of Nursing, has been named a juror for the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, certification body for electronic health records and their network.

Theresa Yeo, assistant professor at Jefferson School of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, has received a three-year, advanced education in nursing grant from Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The $273,202 grant will be used to fund advanced oncology nursing for diverse populations.

George Zangaro, who served for 25 years in various roles in the U.S. Navy, including nurse manager, nurse researcher and executive assistant, has been appointed assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

Ksenia Zukowsky, coordinator of the neonatal nurse practitioner program at Jefferson School of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and Beth Ann Swan, associate professor and associate dean, graduate programs at the same school, have received a three-year, advanced education in nursing grant from Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The $1,284,529 grant will be used to fund Promoting Health Access, a program extending the school’s MSN to a rural campus and its DNP to Pennsylvania’s Geisinger campus. Swan, who was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in June 2007, has also received a two-year, $100,000 grant from National Institutes of Health’ Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research to fund a study titled “Delirium screening: From research to point of care.”