UCLA's inaugural Nurse 21 Awards to honor champions of nursing

A nurse-leader recognized as one of the top 25 women in health care, a New York Times web columnist, the dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and the creator of the nonprofit Nurse–Family Partnership are among the diverse champions of nursing who will be honored by the UCLA School of Nursing at its first Nurse 21 Awards ceremony on May 12 at the London Hotel in West Hollywood.

 

The event coincides with National Nurse Week and occurs on the anniversary of the birthday of Florence Nightingale.

 

The profession of nursing has evolved significantly in recent years, and the UCLA School of Nursing, in establishing the new awards, hopes to highlight this transformation, to raise awareness of the value of nursing to society and to continue to redefine nursing for the 21st century, said the school's dean, Courtney H. Lyder.

 

"Today's nurses are researchers, scholars, advocates, incredible clinicians, administrators and healers," Lyder said. "The individuals we are honoring with the inaugural Nurse 21 Awards are leading the transformation of nursing in ways that are making an immeasurable impact on the health of our nation and of the world."

 

Linda Burnes Bolton, who was recently named one of the "Top 25 Women in Healthcare" by Modern Healthcare magazine, will be the event's keynote speaker and will also receive this year's Nurse 21 Leadership Award.  

 

Bolton is vice chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the National Academies' Institute of Medicine. She serves as vice president for nursing, chief nursing officer and director of nursing research at Cedars–Sinai Medical Center and is a past president of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Black Nurses Association.

 

Other awards recipients include:

 

Theresa Brown is an oncology nurse at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Shadyside Hospital Shadyside Hospital and a writer whose book "Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between," chronicles the challenges facing a first-year nurse. Brown is also a regular contributor to Well, the New York Times health blog.

 

Martha Hill, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, is well known for developing and testing strategies to improve hypertension care and control among underserved urban African Americans, particularly young men. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. From 1997 to 1998, she was the first non-physician to serve as president of the American Heart Association.

 

In 1970, David Olds began to develop a nurse home-visitation model designed to help young women take better care of themselves and their babies. Nearly 30 years later, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others, the "Olds model" has blossomed into the Nurse–Family Partnership, a nonprofit organization serving more than 20,000 mothers in 20 states across the U.S.

 

The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future is a $50 million, multi-year national initiative designed to enhance the image of the nursing profession, recruit new nurses and nurse faculty, and help retain nurses currently in the profession. Launched in February 2002, the campaign works in cooperation with professional nursing organizations, schools, hospitals and other health care organizations to promote opportunities in nursing and increase awareness of the value of the nursing profession to our society and America's health care community.

 

In addition, the Nurse 21 Awards will honor three of UCLA's nurse-leaders: Lorraine Evangilista and Rosemary Carroll-Nash, selected as 2011 Alumni Hall of Fame inductees, and Alison C. Wagnor, a master's entry clinical nurse student who will be honored as an "emerging leader."

 

The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. Rated among the nation's top nursing schools by U.S. News & World Report, the school also is ranked No. 7 in nursing research funded by the National Institutes of Health and No. 1 in NIH stimulus funding. In 2009–10, the school received $18 million in total research grant funding and was awarded 26 faculty research grants. The school offers programs for the undergraduate (B.S.), postgraduate (M.S.N. and M.E.C.N.) and doctoral (Ph.D.) student.

 

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