Western Nursing professor Richard Booth and Nursing student Mia Biondi have been named among the 2014 winners of the Council of Ontario University Programs in Nursing (COUPN) annual awards.
In total, 11 awards will be handed out tonight in Toronto, recognizing 14 Ontario nurse educators, scholars and agencies in provincial and clinical settings who provide exemplary nursing education and research that help to advance the profession of nursing.
Nominators described Booth, winner of the New Tenure Stream Faculty Contribution award, in part:
(Booth) brings an energy and passion to his role as educator with Western’s Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing. He teaches in a way that enables students to understand and find personal meaning and relevance with the material, overcoming a frequent challenge within nursing education where theory and practice are not always linked in a meaningful way. He is also highly engaged as a faculty member, serving on several committees within the school of nursing and contributing greatly to the redesign of the undergraduate nursing curricula.
Nominators described Biondi, winner of the Excellence in Professional Nursing Practice (Undergraduate) award, in part:
(Biondi) is an engaged and conscientious student nurse who has demonstrated dedication to her studies during her time in the Compressed Timeframe BScN program at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing. With a science background from previous studies, she hopes to blend the knowledge and skills she has acquired to become an effective health-care provider, and investigate research solutions that benefit others, primarily within the context of infectious diseases and the stigma associated with those diseases.
“Anyone who has ever been cared for by a nurse, or had a loved one cared for by a nurse, understands the extraordinary value of these women and men to the health care system,” said Jennifer Medves, chair of COUPN and vice-dean (health sciences) and director, School of Nursing at Queen’s University. “Patients benefit tremendously from research into the practice of nursing being conducted at Ontario universities, and our institutions’ innovative approaches to nursing education. The COUPN awards recognize these remarkable nurse educators and scholars.”
For more information, visit the Council of Ontario Universities’ (COU) website.