Nursing professors receive national honors

It was an award-winning weekend for the Nursing School. Six faculty members and one student received honors for work in their fields. Nursing professors Lois Evans and Neville Strumpf were recognized for their work with the elderly with what is often referred to as "The Nobel Prize For Nursing" -- the Baxter Foundation Episteme Award. The professors received a $10,000 prize. The Baxter Award is sponsored by the Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society, which also sponsored four of the other awards that the Penn nurses received during a five-day conference in Detroit. Evans said her research with Strumpf entailed changing the practice of using restraints with frail elderly. In their paper, Evans and Strumpf examined the harmful consequences of this practice -- including both the physical and psychological effects. The professors taught geriatric staff members how to treat specific patient problems. This year marked the fourth time the Baxter Award has been given. The first recipient was University Nursing Professor Dorothy Brooten in 1989. Strumpf said she is thrilled to receive the honor. "It is an honor that few researchers in nursing receive," she said. "It was a privilege and very exciting." The Audrey Hepburn International Award was given to a Nursing professor at the University as well. Ann Wolbert Burgess received the honor for her work with sexually abused children and adolescents, according to Nursing School spokesperson Susan Greenbaum. Burgess was the second-ever recipient of the award. Nursing Professors Anne Keane and Therese Richmond also received the "Best Image" award at the convention for an article they wrote entitled "Tertiary Nurse Practitioners." The article discusses a new graduate program in the Nursing School, designed by Keane, that trains nurse practitioners to function in a hospital. The convention also honored Nursing graduate student Deborah Donahue with the Sigma Theta Tau International Mead Johnson Perinatal Nursing Research Grant, which will put $10,000 toward her proposed research study, "Stress responses to prenatal care: Clinic vs. Home." Nursing Dean Norma Lang said she was very excited about the convention. "It's like the Academy Awards of nursing," she said. At a conference in Boston, Nursing Professor Ann O'Sullivan also received an award this weekend -- the Nurse Practitioner Associates for Continuing Education's National Nurse Practitioner Award for Outstanding Community Service Award. O'Sullivan was recognized for her work with teen mothers and middle school children in West Philadelphia.

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