AACN Recognizes Excellence in Academic Nursing

At the 2020 Academic Nursing Leadership Conference (ANLC), AACN presented several awards to individuals and member schools for their outstanding contributions to nursing education, research, and practice. The conference was held as a virtual experience for the entire month of October with the award presentations occurring on October 18. 

Dr. Cynthia Clark, professor emerita at Boise State University School of Nursing, was the recipient of the John P. McGovern Invitational Lectureship Award. Dr. Clark was honored for her groundbreaking work on fostering civility. She spoke to the AACN membership on “The Imperative of Civility and Community in Uncertain Times” and provided a deeper understanding of incivility and its impact as well as evidence-based strategies to foster civility and health academic working environments.  

The Geraldine “Polly” Bednash Lectureship Award was presented to Dr. Darrell Kirch, President Emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He spoke on “The Future of Health Care—Finding Common Ground in Divisive Times.”  In his presentation, Dr. Kirch drew on his experiences in government, academic health centers, and associations to discuss how health care can and should become the place in which we find national (and global) “common ground.”

The 2019 Lois Capps Policy Luminary Award was presented to Dr. Peter Buerhaus, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies and Professor of Nursing at Montana State University. Dr. Buerhaus was recognized for his integration of health policy into nursing education, in particular, his outstanding research work that informs federal health policy and adds to our collective knowledge of health economics, the nursing workforce, and quality of care.

AACN member institutions also were recognized at the ANLC with several honors.

The New Era for Academic Nursing Award recognizes AACN member institutions that have successfully implemented recommendations from AACN's report Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing. This year’s award was presented to Columbia University School of Nursing.  
 

The Exemplary Academic-Practice Partnership Award acknowledges schools involved in highly productive and model academic-practice partnerships. The 2020 recipient of this award was Farmingdale State College Department of Nursing, Molloy College School of Nursing, St. Joseph’s College Department of Nursing, and the Asthma Coalition of Long Island, a program of the American Lung Association, funded by the New York State Department of Health.

The Innovations in Professional Nursing Education Award recognizes pioneering educational initiatives launched by AACN member institutions. At the ANLC, awards were presented in four institutional categories:

• Small/Liberal Arts Colleges: Lakeview College of Nursing
• Academic Health Centers: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences 
• Private Colleges/Universities: Immaculata University 
• Public Colleges/Universities: University of Missouri-Columbia