LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Seven inspiring individuals and a foundation helping to transform the nursing profession while raising awareness of the valuable role nurses play in 21st century healthcare will be honored at the second annual “Nurse 21 Awards” presented by the UCLA School of Nursing on May 9 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

The honorees represent a diverse group of nurses – an internationally renowned expert in healthcare and the worldwide nursing shortage, an educator and policy advisor currently working in South Australia, a strategic advisor for the Future of Nursing Campaign for Action, a nursing student who is challenging the stereotypes and inequalities that affect all nurses, a clinical nurse specialist, an expert in mental health nursing – and one of the world’s best-known and most highly respected healthcare foundations.

“We are honored to recognize these champions who have been working to redefine and expand the role of nursing,” said Courtney H. Lyder, dean of the UCLA School of Nursing. “Their impact has been enormous and will continue to be so.”

The keynote address at the “Nurse 21” gala will be delivered by Heidi Crooks, RN, MA, who will also receive this year’s Nurse 21 Leadership Award. Crooks currently serves as senior associate director of operations and patient care services and chief nursing officer at the UCLA Health System. Crooks is a past recipient of the Most Innovative Patient-Focused Care Award from the Hospital Council of Southern California as well as the 2001 Caregiver of the Year Award.

In addition to Crooks, other 2012 award recipients include:

Corporation/Foundation – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital Campaign: The Future of Nursing Campaign for Action. This unique initiative is designed to identify, generate, synthesize and disseminate evidence essential to implementing the recommendations outlined in the Institute of Medicine’s report “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” and to contribute to Campaign for Action’s goal of advancing comprehensive change in healthcare for patients and the country. International. Judith A. Oulton, D.Sc. (hon.), M.Ed., RN, former chief executive officer of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and current member of the board of trustees of the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention. Oulton is an internationally renowned expert in issues such as healthcare and the worldwide nursing shortage. Her efforts to advance the field of nursing have spanned her entire career. Oulton retired from ICN, a federation of national nurses’ associations that works to maintain a strong international community of nurses and to promote sound health policies around the world in collaboration with the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations. Media Advocacy – Diana Mason, RN, Ph.D., former editor of the American Journal of Nursing. During her 10-year tenure, the journal was named one of the 100 most influential journals of the century in biology and medicine—the only nursing journal to be selected for this distinction. Currently Dr. Mason is the Rudin professor of nursing and co-director of the Center for Health, Media and Policy at Hunter College, The City University of New York. She also serves as strategic adviser for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action that is coordinating implementation of the recommendations in the Institute of Medicine’s report on “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” Community Award – Kristine Gebbie, former head of public health for the state of Oregon, Washington State Secretary of Health, and member of the White House team which established the AIDS Policy Office for President Clinton. Gebbie has also served as a senior policy advisor to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion on subjects of public health infrastructure and the public health workforce. She has chaired policy committees for both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Energy. Presently Dr. Gebbie works as an adjunct professor, faculty of health sciences, at Flinders University School of Nursing & Midwifery in South Australia where she continues her longstanding research interests in competency-based education and emergency preparedness. Distinguished Alumni – Sandra Rome, RN, MN, AOCN, a clinical nurse specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Rome received both her BSN and her MN degrees from the UCLA School of Nursing. She currently serves as an assistant clinical professor at the school, through which she frequently mentors graduate students and provides guest lectures. Rome has impacted nursing on a national level through membership, speaking, and publishing several articles and book chapters in nationally recognized journals and texts. Distinguished Alumni – Dr. Vivien Dee, DNSc, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, is professor and director of the Ph.D. nursing program at Azusa Pacific University. Upon graduation from UCLA, she served as nurse consultant at Western Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities in Santa Monica and then as assistant director for child services at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital from 1977-1987. In February, 2011, she was the keynote speaker at the International Nursing Conference in Riyadh, sponsored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health. Emerging Leader Award – Jonathan Lee, a fourth-year student in the undergraduate program at the UCLA School of Nursing. In his second year he co-founded Men in Nursing at UCLA, and under his leadership the group has become one of the largest and most active chapters of the American Assembly for Men in Nursing. As an individual and through Men in Nursing at UCLA, Lee continues to challenge the stereotypes and inequalities that affect all nurses and hold back the nursing profession.

Further information may be obtained at http://nursing.ucla.edu/Nurse21.

The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. Ranked among the top nursing schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report, the school also is ranked No. 7 in nursing research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and No.1 in NIH stimulus funding. In 2010-2011, the school received $24 million in total research grant funding and was awarded 26 faculty research grants. The school offers programs for the undergraduate (BS), postgraduate (MSN and MECN) and doctoral (Ph.D.) student. For more information, please visit nursing.ucla.edu.

Read the original:
UCLA School of Nursing “Nurse 21” Awards Honor Nursing Champions Who Transform and Lead the Profession in the 21st ...