Nursing News: Honors, Awards and Accomplishments

Barbara Drew Is First Nurse Named American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist

Barbara Drew When the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association convene in Chicago this November, Barbara Drew will become the first nurse in the organization’s history to be named a Distinguished Scientist. One of six scientists singled out for the honor this year, Drew – the David Mortara Distinguished Professor in Physiological Nursing Research and founder of the UCSF School of Nursing’s ECG Monitoring Research Lab – was selected for her work on improving care for patients with cardiac arrhythmias.

Drew has taught clinical electrocardiography to nursing and medical students and residents for more than three decades, and has mentored numerous graduate students in the field of electrocardiography. Her research has shaped the development of commercial cardiac monitors and has been instrumental in the introduction of multilead ECG monitoring, ST-segment and QT-interval monitoring, and strategies to reduce clinical alarm fatigue.

Ruth Malone Earns American Public Health Association's Lifetime Achievement Award

Ruth Malone, professor and chair in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, has received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Public Health Association’s (APHA’s) Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Section. The APHA will honor Malone at its annual meeting in November for her decades of work in health policy on tobacco control issues and her ongoing examination of the tobacco industry’s influence on public health.

School of Nursing Faculty to Become Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing

Kimberly Baltzell, Jyu-Lin Chen, Karen Duderstadt Three faculty members from the Department of Family Health Care Nursing have been selected as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). Chosen by a panel of elected and appointed fellows, Kimberly Baltzell, Jyu-Lin Chen and Karen Duderstadt were among 168 nurses invited to join the academy, in recognition of their contributions to nursing education, leadership, policy and research. After their induction in October, they will join 50 other School of Nursing faculty and emeriti as fellows of the AAN, a group of approximately 2,200 of the nation’s most accomplished nurse leaders.

Kim Quang Dau Receives Kitty Ernst Award from ACNM

Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of the UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital Interdepartmental Nurse-Midwifery Education Program Kim Quang Dau has received the American College of Nurse-Midwives’ Kitty Ernst Award for 2014. Dau, who served as the inaugural chair of the ACNM’s Diversification and Inclusion Task Force, received the award at the ACNM’s 59th annual meeting this May. The Kitty Ernst Award, affectionately known as the “Young Whippersnapper Award,” is named after the college’s fourth and youngest president; it was established in 1998 to honor an ACNM member certified for less than 10 years who has demonstrated excellence in clinical practice, education, administration or research relating to midwifery and women’s health. 

UCSF Elev8 Partnership Brings Health Care to Oakland’s Underserved Children

For the past three years, a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies has funded a partnership between the UCSF Schools of Nursing and Dentistry and Elev8 Oakland to provide quality in-school health care to children in underserved communities. From 2011 to 2014, advanced practice nursing and dental school faculty and students went into area middle schools to deliver mental and dental health care, health education and case management services, and to improve health literacy and advocacy to families at the community level. Among the initiatives successfully implemented were a condom availability policy, obesity intervention and mass screenings for dental, physical and mental health problems. A new two-year grant will allow the partners to move to the second phase of the project, which will include data analysis and dissemination.