Nursing Practice Awards

Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children

2017 Award Recipient

Elizabeth Sloand, PhD, CPNP, FAAN

Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
Maryland, USA

I am humbled, honored, and excited to receive the Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children. As a pediatric nurse practitioner and nurse educator, I have had the privilege of working with children and families throughout my career to improve their health.

Elizabeth Sloand has been dedicated to the care of under-served and low-income children throughout her career. Her work as a nurse educator, scholar, and pediatric provider focuses on uninsured and under-insured children and youth in the US and Haiti. She currently is the primary care provider in an urban clinic for children ages 0 – 21, many of whom live in vulnerable circumstances. In addition, she has traveled to Haiti routinely for many years, providing episodic primary and preventive healthcare to impoverished rural families. She mentors nursing and nurse practitioner students who participate on the medical teams as part of their training in primary care and community health nursing. Dr. Sloand teaches graduate nursing students in pediatrics and public health. She is a nurse researcher with scholarly projects in the areas of infant nutrition, asthma management, and innovative preventive care. Her publications appear in scholarly nursing and public health journals.

2015 Award Recipient

Azza H. Ahmed, DNSc, IBCLC, CPNP

Associate Professor Purdue University School of Nursing Indiana, USA Delta Omicron #109

Dr. Ahmed is a practitioner, teacher and researcher. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) and a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with 25 years of experience in breastfeeding research. Dr. Ahmed received her Bachelor in Nursing, MSN, and DNS from the Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University and completed her Post-Master certificate as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Purdue University School of Nursing. Dr. Ahmed’s research focus is on promoting breastfeeding among vulnerable populations including low income mothers. Dr. Ahmed has been actively involved in advancing lactation research and promoting breastfeeding among vulnerable populations since 1990. She has published her work in scholarly peer reviewed journals and presented her work nationally and internationally. Dr. Ahmed received several grants to support her research and is actively involved in interdisciplinary breastfeeding research teams. She is an active member in several national and international professional organizations such as MNRS, Sigma and ILCA.

Clinical Partnership Award

2017 Award Recipients

Academic Health or Medical Center

Unit 62 Inpatient Medical Telemetry

University of Kansas Health System
Kansas, USA

Unit 62, the Medical Telemetry Patient Care Unit, at The University of Kansas Health System, is a 22-bed unit that opened in July of 2012 as a new team. We provide care for a complex patient population treating various diagnosis and conditions. In February 2015, we embarked on a Lean Journey with goals of decreasing length of stay, improving patient satisfaction, reducing readmission, improving quality and safety metrics, and being a premier place to work, with demonstration through top notch employee satisfaction survey scores. Over the last 2 years, each goal has met or exceeded the set targets. Patient care is at an all-time best demonstrated by the quality outcomes and top percentile of patient satisfaction. The highly engaged nursing team is paving the way to outstanding patient care and will never settle for status quo, as we are on the constant journey each day to continually improve.

Large Hospital

Implementing an Acuity Adaptable Care Model Utilizing Evidence-Based Practice

Eskenazi Health
Indiana, USA

Our partnership team included administrative and clinical leaders at Eskenazi Health and faculty of Indiana University School of Nursing. The nursing administrative team members included Lee Ann Blue, and Teresa (Lynn) Denny, associate chief nursing officer, who initiated and supported the transition to the new acuity adaptable care model. The clinical leadership and research team members included clinical nurse specialists Jennifer Kitchens and Lenora Maze. These expert clinicians along with nursing managers supported implementation of the model by serving as leaders, mentors and bedside consultants for nurses, nursing personnel and members of the interprofessional team. Faculty team members supporting the conduct of the research and dissemination of findings were Jan Fulton and Jennifer Embree. Many thanks to the patients, family members and Eskenazi Health staff for participating in the studies by sharing their perceptions in interviews and focus groups.

Primary or Community Facility

North Central Nursing Clinics

Purdue University School of Nursing
Indiana, USA

The Family Health Clinic of Carroll County was launched in 1995 by Jo Brooks, a Purdue University School of Nursing professor, to provide quality primary healthcare to individuals who were unable to obtain care due to financial or access challenges. The Family Health Clinic staff began seeing patients in a 500-square-foot space on the Delphi Courthouse Square. In 2006 the Family Health Clinic then expanded, opening a satellite location in Monon, Indiana. In 2008 the Delphi Clinic moved to the Brooks Center in Delphi. In 2009, a non-profit organization was formed called North Central Nursing Clinics (NCNC) with Purdue to secure federal funding from HRSA as Federally Qualified Health Centers. In 2014 NCNC received PCMH Level 2 Designation. NCNC also provides training opportunities for numerous Purdue University students. Today, there are four sites. The Family Health Center of Burlington and the Family Health Center of Wolcott added in 2016.

2015 Award Recipient

Academic Health or Medical Center Category
University of Louisville Hospital - KentuckyOne Health

Kentucky, USA

University of Louisville Hospital - KentuckyOne Health (ULH), a 432-bed academic medical center in Louisville, Kentucky, serves primarily low-income, minority, and under-served clients. Low health literacy disproportionately affects low-income and minority populations. The ULH Chief Nursing Officer supported two ULH nurse leaders to participate in the Sigma Maternal-Child Nurse Leadership Academy. The Academy positioned the nurse leaders to create processes and outcomes that improved care of patients with low health literacy. Steps of the project included:

1) Review of health literacy standards;
2) Formation of an infrastructure to review and develop patient education materials;
3) Assessment of literacy level and learning preferences of patients;
4) Education to improve skills of nurses as patient teachers.

Intermediate outcomes included dissemination of manuscripts and professional development of the nurse leaders. The primary outcome, patient satisfaction with nurse communication, improved from 75.9% to 84.6%, and satisfaction with discharge information improved from 84.6% to 98.6%.

Edith Moore Copeland Award for Excellence in Creativity

2017 Award Recipient

Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF

Professor and Dean
George Washington University School of Nursing
District of Columbia, USA

Being lauded for creativity and my work on the NLN/Jeffries Simulation Framework is both exciting and humbling. Nationally and internationally, Sigma is recognized as a standard of excellence within nursing. Being honored by such a prestigious group of my peers and colleagues is a highlight of my career.

Pamela R. Jeffries is internationally known for her research and work in nursing education and simulation. Throughout the academic community, she is well regarded for her scholarly contributions to the development of innovative teaching strategies, experiential learning techniques, new pedagogies and the delivery of content using technology. Her accomplishments have been recognized through prestigious teaching and research awards and honors from a number of national and international organizations including NLN, AACN, Sigma Theta Tau International and the International Nursing Association of Clinical Simulations and Learning.

2015 Award Recipient

Nancy Glass, PhD, MPH, RN

Professor Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Maryland, USA Nu Beta Chapter #312

Nancy Glass, PhD, MPH, RN. Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Associate Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. Dr. Glass conducts community-based interventions with diverse populations across multiple domestic and global settings. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) of multiple multidisciplinary studies in the US, DR Congo, Somalia, and South Sudan to test employment, economic empowerment and safety interventions to improve the health of survivors of gender-based violence and their families.

Helen Henry Excellence of Care Award

2017 Award Recipient

Clinical Nurse Leaders at the Carolinas Medical Center

Carolinas Healthcare System
North Carolina, USA

This award validates the hard work, determination and dedication Clinical Nurse Leaders at Carolinas Medical Center devote to our daily practice. This award not only recognizing these pioneering nurses but also should encourage other nurses to promote innovative and advancement of the nursing profession.

The Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) program at Carolinas Medical Center grew from 4 graduates in 2008 to more than 40 CNL graduates and students today. This has designated the Level 1 Trauma Center as the largest employer of practicing CNLs within one setting. These masters prepared CNLs are trained to act as “attending nurses” overseeing the clinical care of a microsystem to serve as the glue to care fragmentation and to overcome many of the healthcare challenges we all face. A massive reduction in aggregate adverse events totaling millions of dollars has been documented on the CNL units. A few of these include reductions in falls (28%), catheter associated urinary tract infections (63%), central line infections (5%) and hospital acquired pressure ulcer rates (38%). CNLs at CMC continue to institute evidence based practice at the bedside, empower nurses and improve care quality as well as patient outcomes.

2015 Award Recipients

(Left - Right) Joanna Hudak, Elizabeth Ryland, Danyale Davis

Danyale Marie Davis, BSN, RN, PCCN

Registered Nurse Sentara Healthcare Virginia, USA

Danyale Davis graduated with her baccalaureate degree from Old Dominion University and has practiced nursing for nearly ten years. She began her nursing career in the Intermediate Care Unit (IMCU) where she obtained professional certification as a progressive care certified nurse (PCCN). Working in the IMCU setting facilitated the foundation for her passion to focus and improve on patient safety outcomes. The transportation diagram that was developed and adapted system wide was a genuine example of interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and respiratory care and has been recognized in Sentara Leigh‘s “Journey to Magnet Excellence.” She has also worked on various collaborative teams focusing on improving patient safety outcomes as well as chaired a committee to streamline practices in the IMCU setting across the healthcare systems twelve hospitals. Danyale currently works as a staff nurse with the Sentara Systemwide Resource Pool and travels within each of the hospitals in the IMCU setting.

Joanna M Hudak, MS, RRT, NPS

Respiratory Care and Pulmonary Diagnostics Manager Sentara Healthcare Virginia, USA

Joanna Hudak is the Respiratory Care and Pulmonary Diagnostics manager at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, VA; she has over 25 years of experience in respiratory care. Joanna earned her baccalaureate degree from SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse NY in 1992. She earned a Master’s degree in management from Troy State University in 2001. She is credentialed by the National Board of Respiratory Care as a registered respiratory therapist and a respiratory neonatal pediatric specialist. Joanna currently serves on the advisory board for the Tidewater community college respiratory therapy program college. She currently focuses within Sentara Healthcare on streamlining respiratory practice across the system. She was recently selected to be the project manager for the final phase of Sentara Leigh’s building renovation project. In her tenure with Sentara Healthcare she has received professional excellence and quality excellence awards for her work.

Elizabeth M. Ryland, BA, RRT

Clinical Respiratory Specialist Sentara Leigh Hospital Virginia, USA

Elizabeth Ryland graduated from Tidewater Community College with an Associates Applied Science degree in Respiratory Therapy and has been a staff respiratory therapist at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia since 1991. She obtained her baccalaureate degree from Virginia Wesleyan College in Business with special focus in Management and Economics. She was appointed as Clinical Specialist for Respiratory Care in 2000. She served as District Director and Vice President for the Virginia Society for Respiratory Care and participated in the initiative for Respiratory state licensure in Virginia. She currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Tidewater Community College respiratory therapy program. Her most recent work has been focused on inter-professional education of registered nurses and respiratory therapists using state of the art critical care simulation as well as airway safety and transportation of respiratory compromised patients. This work was highlighted in Sentara Leigh Hospital's "Journey to Magnet Excellence".

Hester C. Klopper Global Health Award

2017 Award Recipient

Iota Xi Chapter #228

Florida Atlantic University
Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Florida, USA

This award exemplifies the dedication and hard work of Iota Xi members to establish and maintain a presence in rural Guatemala with the underserved indigenous Maya population. We bring health care and service to those who would not otherwise receive such care. We created policy and follow up protocol.

Dr. Rhonda Goodman began the Guatemala Study Abroad Program in rural Guatemala in 2012. Since then, she has taken approximately 200 students and faculty members, most of which are Iota Xi members or were inducted into Iota Xi prior to graduation. The vision of this program is to bring health care to the underserved indigenous Maya population which lives in extreme poverty and to provide a rich cultural immersion and practicum experience for our graduate and undergraduate nursing students. We provide primary care clinics, cervical cancer screening, school health and wellness screenings, health education and promotion, the provision and installation of wood stoves, donations of school supplies, student scholarships, education for the Guatemalan health care workers, compost latrines, and water filters. Dr. Goodman has published a manual for culturally-specific primary care for the patients in rural Guatemala and has established an effective follow up system for our patients.

2015 Award Recipient

Rho Delta Chapter #410

Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery Pakistan

The Rho Delta Chapter has been working to fulfill the mission of Sigma since its chartering in 2000. During the 2013-2015 biennium, Rho Delta Chapter held various activities intended to address disparities in global health, including initiatives at orphanages, daycare centers, and child rehabilitative centers of Karachi, Pakistan, and initiatives to support breastfeeding. The chapter also conducted an innovative immunization quiz show, outreach to local populations to promote awareness, and achieved recognition as venue for providing polio vaccine to people wanting to travel outside of Pakistan.

Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice

2017 Award Recipient

Elizabeth Duxbury

MS, RN, ACNS-BC
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Medical Intensive Care Unit
Rochester Regional Health

I am humbled to receive this award validating a lifelong desire to collaboratively improve patient care and positively impact the nursing profession. This award has provided me a greater appreciation for the impact that nurses make across the spectrum of care for patients, families and communities we so proudly serve.

Elizabeth Duxbury is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Rochester General Hospital. She is a skilled and compassionate clinician, committed to evidence-based practice, quality improvement and nursing professional development. She thinks beyond the bedside, while never forgetting that patients are the highest priority. Elizabeth promotes a just culture with a non-punitive approach to investigating and addressing quality issues. As a partner in reducing hospital acquired infections such as central line-associated bacteremia (CLABSI), she uses evidence to update polices and implement innovations that result in the realization of statistically significant reductions. To enhance patient and family satisfaction, Elizabeth applied to the Society of Critical Care Medicine Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Collaboration. Her project was selected as one of fifty throughout the United States. Elizabeth is a fearless leader, who role models hard work, creativity, risk taking, caring and collaborative practice. She works diligently to expand nursing scholarly endeavors and promote publication of successes.

2015 Award Recipient

Judith E. Haber, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN

The Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing New York University, College of Nursing New York, USA Upsilon Chapter #018 Alpha Omega Chapter #046

Dr. Judith Haber, the Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing at NYU College of Nursing, is an internationally recognized leader in psychiatric-mental health nursing, evidence-based practice, interprofessional education and practice and oral-systemic health. She is the Executive Director of a national oral health initiative, Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice (OHNEP) and the HRSA funded initiative, Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH) designed to advance a national nursing and interprofessional oral health agenda. Dr. Haber has received numerous awards including Distinguished Alumna Awards from Adelphi and New York University, the APNA Psychiatric Nurse of the Year Award, and the ANA Hildegarde Peplau Award. Dr. Haber is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Haber is internationally recognized for her landmark textbook, Comprehensive Psychiatric Nursing and currently for the award winning textbook, Nursing Research: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-based Practice, as well as more than 100 articles and book chapters.

Practice Academe Innovative Collaboration Award

2017 Award Recipient

Duke Advancement of Nursing, Center of Excellence

Duke University Health System and Duke University School of Nursing
North Carolina, USA

The practice-academe innovation collaboration award demonstrates that Duke is a preeminent leader among nursing academic-practice partnerships. This award allows the DANCE partnership to share their model with others around the world in an effort to empower and influence the nursing profession.

The Duke Advancement of Nursing, Center of Excellence (DANCE) is an academic-practice partnership between the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) and the Duke University Health System (DUHS). This innovative partnership is built on the foundation of trust, respect, and a shared vision to accomplish mutually beneficial goals that advance the nursing profession. DANCE encompasses two pillars of growth: 1) Lifelong learning and 2) Quality improvement (QI), evidence-based practice (EBP) and research. The vision of DANCE is to be the preeminent leader in academic-practice partnerships that fosters collaboration, synergy, and professional development of nurses throughout the education and career continuum. The mission of the partnership is to support and advance the professional development, knowledge, and skills of all nurses throughout DUSON and DUHS, as well as to serve as an exemplary model of how academic-practice partnerships empower the nursing profession to influence healthcare and education.

2015 Award Recipient

Interdisciplinary Healthcare Education Partnership

Alberta Health Services MacEwan University NorQuest College Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Provincial Health Services Authority University of Alberta Alberta, Canada

The Interdisciplinary Health Education Partnership (IHEP) is an inter-institutional, interprofessional team comprised of healthcare simulation specialists and interprofessional education experts from both clinical practice and academic settings in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Over the past seven years, IHEP members have successfully developed, implemented, and evaluated multi-modal interprofessional simulations (SIM-IPE) for pre-licensure learners at HELP! Save Stan Saturday (SSS). This annual IPE event offers learners a full day of interprofessional team-based scenarios focused on increasing interprofessional competence. IHEP, through the implementation of SSS, has developed capacity for SIM-IPE in faculty and clinical instructors and successfully provided pre-licensure health science students the opportunity to increase IP competence. Moreover, this partnership has resulted in significant enrichment of SIM-IPE in the nursing and non-nursing simulation practice communities locally and across Canada. Academic and clinical practice members comprise: MacEwan University, Norquest College, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, University of Alberta, Alberta Health Services Provincial Health Authority.

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International Awards for Nursing Excellence