Kent State Lecturer Earns Nursing Award

Florence Nightingale battled a bumbling bureaucracy, Clara Barton famously dodged bullets, but today’s nurses face challenges all their own as the linchpin of a high-tech healthcare system that asks them to be a skilled care provider, information sharer, wellness educator and quality control expert, all wrapped into one. Nurse educators excel at teaching the technical knowledge and skills, but how do they teach students the qualities that make certain nurses so memorable? How do they teach students to have “the nurse’s touch?”

Just ask Cathy Snelson, associate lecturer at Kent State University’s College of Nursing and resident of Akron, Ohio. Snelson was recently recognized by ATI Nursing Education as one of four Nurse Educators With the Nurse’s Touch, an award that recognizes nurse educators who excel at preparing their students for the full spectrum of challenges that await them in practice.

Competing among nearly 700 nominations, Snelson impressed judges with her integration of professional and interpersonal skills into their nursing practice and the education of students. These skills include teaching nursing students how to stay healthy, manage work-related stress, be a patient advocate, convey professional behaviors and attitudes, use nursing informatics and technology, and function as a leader of the healthcare team.

Snelson teaches these concepts by making herself a living example, according to her nominator: “Cathy is the golden standard of professional nursing educators … Cathy can balance teaching the details of pathophysiology with kindness and caring to help students work through the daily stresses of nursing school. Cathy stressed … always remaining patient focused and always communicating clearly and accurately.”

To honor their commitment to incorporating professionalism and interpersonal skills into their curriculum, Snelson will receive Nurse’s Touch™ for one year. Nurse’s Touch is a unique product that uses video simulation to teach professional and interpersonal skills.

Snelson also receives a complimentary reservation at the 2014 ATI National Nurse Educator Summit in Orlando, Fla. The summit is a four-day professional development conference featuring hundreds of nurse educators from across the country. Snelson will receive free registration, room and board, and a $500 travel voucher. 

“Nurses require a special set of skills to provide safe, quality nursing care, and this includes interpersonal skills like communication, professionalism and leadership,” said Sheryl Sommer, director of nursing education and curriculum at ATI Nursing Education. “Nursing programs have limited time and resources which mean these curriculum areas are not always a top priority in the classroom. We want to raise awareness of this need and celebrate educators who incorporate professional and interpersonal skills into their teaching to help develop future nurses so they are prepared for the on-the-job demands and are positioned to lead within healthcare teams.”