The Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD) provides a scholarship program for members who attend our annual conference. This valuable program helps ANPD members who attend this event to advance their careers by attending this valuable event. Applicants must be an ANPD member in good standing and cannot have previously received the scholarship award (ANPD, 2022a). Five scholarship recipients for the 2023 annual ANPD conference are as follows:
* Laura Beth Jaramillo from East Carolina University Health Medical Center;
* Andrea Joseph from Wellstar Paulding Hospital in Hiram, Georgia;
* Christine Hawknuff from Carle Health, who serves as Director of Clinical Education;
* Kayla Dunagan from Indiana University Health; and
* Joy Memmen from Platte Valley Medical Center.
According to the nursing professional development (NPD) practice model, our excellence leads to "professional role competence and growth which results in optimal care and population health" (Harper & Maloney, 2022). At the annual ANPD Aspire Convention, we celebrated many of our members' contributions through awards for each of the seven NPD roles. These are the Change Agent, Mentor, Leader, Learning Facilitator, Champion for Scientific Inquiry, Advocate for NPD Specialty, and Partner for Practice Transitions awards (ANPD, 2022b). The recipients of these awards are as follows:
The Change Agent Award for transforming processes at either patient care unit, education department, or organizational level went to Joy Olczak from Winston Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Olczak is a simulation educator for Novant Health. Her background in critical care nursing has guided the continuing improvements in education through simulation.
The Mentor Award for contributing to the professional growth of others as individuals develop across practice, professional, and educational settings went to Renee Cherry from Washington, North Carolina. Renee mentors her peers by striving to achieve organizational goals, support best practices, and promote professional development at East Carolina University Health Medical Center.
The Leader Award for using educational design processes to bridge the knowledge, skills, and or practice gaps went to Tracy Langston from East Carolina University Health Medical Center. She provides leadership for a centralized NPD department, which includes life support training and simulation, serves as the primary nurse planner for the health system's approved provider unit, and has a passion for supporting new nursing professionals through mentorship and developing innovative methods of delivering NPD.
The Learning Facilitator Award for educational design to close knowledge, skill, and practice gaps went to Megan Webber from Cascade, Iowa. Megan developed innovative teaching for infusion pump/electronic medical record integration; redesigned more hands-on skills for orientation; and created an interactive, quality-focused series for charge nurses at MercyOne, Dubuque.
The Champion for Scientific Inquiry Award for promotion of new knowledge and use of evidence to advance practice went to Jennifer Andres Luna from Baytown, Texas. Dr. Luna generates new knowledge and sustains multiple evidence-based practice initiatives through education, inspiration, and reinforcement at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital.
The Advocate for NPD Specialty Award recognizes those who actively supports, promotes, and demonstrates NPD as a nursing specialty. This award went to Patsy Loretta Maloney from the University of Washington-Tacoma. Dr. Maloney has been a co-editor of Nursing Professional Development: Scope and Standards of Practice, third and fourth editions, and the NPD Anthology: Making a Difference as well as a section editor for Foundations of Practice in the Core Curriculum for Nursing Professional Development, third and fourth editions, and a contributor for the fifth edition. She has many years of clinical, educational, and administrative experience, with over 25 years in the practice of NPD.
The Partner for Transition Award went to Alba Padin from Northwell Health/Northern Westchester Hospital. She is the clinical professional development educator; she oversees educational programs for the cardiac catheterization laboratory, electrophysiology laboratory, nuclear cardiology, and echocardiography department.
In addition to the seven awards based on NPD roles, two special awards were presented. The Belinda Puetz Award that embraces excellence in NPD, which includes displaying creativity, productivity, exemplary leadership qualities, and efficiency, went to Stephanie Zidek from Advocate Health. She serves as the Director of Nursing Education and Professional Development. She has held NPD leadership roles at the facility, regional, and system levels and has been selected as a member of the Young Professional Voices-Class of 2021 by the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. She also serves as a Lead Appraiser for the ANCC's Practice Transition Accreditation Program and serves on the ANPD Board of Directors.
The Marlene Kramer Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize individuals who have had an enduring impact on our practice specialty and organization was established by the ANPD Board of Directors in 2016. This lifetime achievement award was first awarded to Dr. Marlene Kramer in 2017, who recently passed away. Dr. Pam Dickerson, Kari Schmidt, Dr. Dora Bradley, Dr. Bette Case Di Leonardi, Dr. Belinda Puetz, and Colonel Sandra Bruce have been the previous recipients of this honor. The ANPD Board of Directors announced that the 2023 Marlene Kramer Lifetime Achievement Award has been awarded to Dr. Kathryn Casey!
If your responsibility involves interacting with new nurses in a nurse residency program, Dr. Casey's work has influenced your program. Her collaboration with Regina Fink led to the development of the Casey-Fink Graduate Nurse Experience Survey, used by many of us to evaluate graduate nurse role transition into clinical practice. In 2021, Kathy published the Revised Casey-Fink Nurse Retention Survey, designed to measure nurse retention and job satisfaction and to reflect current healthcare trends. Passionate about embracing our newest nurses to retain them in a competent and confident workforce, Kathy has studied this population and published in the Journal of Nursing Administration, the Journal of Nursing Education, and the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. Kathy lives in Denver, Colorado, working at Denver Health as a Professional Development Specialist and Nurse Residency Program Coordinator.
On a more personal note, our ANPD community suffered a loss in February when Dennis Doherty, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, Senior Professional Development Specialist at Boston Children's Hospital and Director on the ANPD Board of Directors, passed away after a battle with cancer. Dennis was an amazing father, husband, and colleague, and he will be missed.
Dennis was elected to the ANPD Board in 2022 and had served one year of his two-year term at the time of his passing. Dennis contributed to the specialty of NPD in so many ways, including being the recipient of multiple grants to study NPD and as author or co-author of 14 professional publications and numerous regional and national presentations. He started his relationship with ANPD by serving on the Consultative Function Task Force from 2016 to 2017, the Convention Planning Committee from 2017 to 2020, and on the EBP Academy in 2019-2021.
His family, friends, and colleagues remember Dennis as a funny and happy person who loved his wife and two sons, his family, and his friends. He had a love for music and could always find a way to connect with others through that. On the ANPD Board, he listened. You could see him taking it all in, considering all sides, and when he spoke to ask a question or share an opinion, everyone listened. He was a true advocate for nursing, for pediatrics and autism awareness, and for the specialty of NPD. Our thoughts and prayers remain with his family always.
References