Four UK Nurse Leaders Inducted as 2015 Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing
Pictured above from left to right: Dr. Cecilia Page, Dr. Pat Howard, Dr. Deborah Reed, Dr. Kristin Ashford, Dean Heath and Dr. Ellen Hahn.
Four nurse leaders from the UK College of Nursing and UK HealthCare have been appointed as 2015 fellows by the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in honor of their service to the community and the nursing profession. The distinction recognizes nurses whose outstanding accomplishments, interdisciplinary engagement and leadership are actively transforming our country’s health care systems.
“To have so many AAN fellows at one institution is a testament to UK’s commitment to research and leadership,” said Dr. Janie Heath, dean and Warwick Professor of Nursing. “This is a great honor for the University of Kentucky.”
The four inductees include three faculty members from the UK College of Nursing: Kristin Ashford, associate professor and assistant dean of research; Patricia Burkhart, associate dean of undergraduate faculty affairs; and Professor Deborah Reed; and Cecilia Page the chief information officer for UK HealthCare.
Ashford is helping women who smoke and their children through her groundbreaking work, which has shown that smoking is linked to preterm birth. Ashford has led three NIH/CMMI research studies (more than $2.5 million in funding) that have resulted in a database of more than 500 pregnant women that includes psychosocial and immune markers in four biological media. This data is helping Ashford and her colleagues develop a preterm birth risk assessment tool that will inform early interventions for pregnant women.
Burkhart has empowered countless children with asthma and their families around the world to self-monitor asthma symptoms, intervene early and greatly improve the quality of their lives. The successful results of her work have been widely disseminated through publications in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and other high-impact nursing and medical journals, as well as through the news media.
Due to Reed’s, and others, collaborative work, the number of children who have died on U.S. farms has declined from 365 in 1996 to 114 in 2014. One of only a few nurses who conduct research within the hazardous agricultural industry, Reed has brought nurses to the forefront by serving on committees for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the board of directors of the International Society of Agricultural Safety and Health.
Page has led the seamless adoption of cutting-edge technology innovations in health care systems. When electronic health records were first being implemented, the response from nursing was one of disillusionment and negativity. One of a handful of nurses in the role of chief information officer, Page developed systemic approaches that have helped nurses embrace information technology and as a result, have streamlined their work.
The American Academy of Nursing's 2,200 fellows are nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research and include association executives, university presidents, deans, political appointees, hospital executives and vice presidents for nursing, nurse consultants, researchers and entrepreneurs. Academy fellows have a responsibility to contribute their time and energy to the academy and to engage with other health leaders outside the Academy in transforming America's health system.
