Regional Nursing Organization Recognizes Professors for Outstanding Accomplishments

Boston, Mass. – Three Northeastern University nursing professors are being honored with awards by the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing (MACN). Clinical Instructor Valeria A. Ramdin, MS, RNCS, ANP is receiving MACN’s Academic Nursing Early Career Award for Full-time Faculty. The MACN also presents awards in the Academic Innovative Teaching category, which in 2008 recognized Associate Professor Margaret Emerson, Ph.D., RN and Clinical Instructor Ann G. Hill, MS, RN, CRNA, BC, as a team.

“We are proud of our faculty as these awards recognize their distinctive qualities,” says Nancy Hoffart, Dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences School of Nursing at Northeastern University. “The recipients’ strong clinical backgrounds help guide students as they prepare for the challenges and rewards of today’s practice environment. Their teaching style conveys respect and collegiality toward students and they show creativity in developing learning approaches that capitalize on Northeastern’s philosophy of experiential education.”

The Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing (MACN) created the Academic Innovative Teaching Award to recognize a nurse educator who brings new ideas to the classroom. By demonstrating an innovative approach to educating future nurses and encourages more nurses to consider becoming nurse educators. The Academic Nursing Early Career Award recognizes nurse educators early in their careers, who have demonstrated excellence in their part-time and full-time academic teaching role and functions.

Emerson and Hill were awarded the Academic Innovative Teaching Category for designing an innovative learning model that enabled an entire class of students to complete three required nursing courses abroad, including a three-week trip to Dublin, Ireland. The experience enabled the students to develop compassion and respect for the needs of vulnerable populations, as well as to see how another country’s values, government policies, and health care infrastructures affect care. Because the learning focused on the same patient population in both the US and Ireland, the students were exceptionally well positioned to learn the impact of social, cultural, and political context on health, health care delivery, and the nursing role.

Ramdin received the Early Career Award because in addition to her classroom teaching and guidance and supervision of part-time faculty in adult health nursing, she provides additional assistance with class content to her students, and offers guidance to them as they are making career decisions and problem solving other issues related to their academics. Since joining the nursing faculty at Northeastern University, Ramdin has taught traditional, non-traditional, and accelerated students, with one goal – to engage every student, every time and leave them with the desire to continue in nursing. She encourages her students to apply critical thinking, understand how a disease impacts a patient’s life, and recognize the difference that excellent nursing care can make. Students frequently return to Ramdin for advice, refer other students to her course, and often comment on the positive impact she’s had on their education.

Valeria A. Ramdin, MS, RNCS, ANP – MACN Early Career Award for Full-time Faculty

Ramdin specializes inprimary health care promotion, women’s health, public health, and alternative medicine. Her research area focuses on policy and regulations related to herbal dietary supplements. Ramdin’s teachings focus on nursing interventions, assessment and community care, as well as medical-surgical care of acutely ill adults.

Margaret Emerson, Ph.D., RN, CCRN – MACN Academic Innovative Teaching Award

Emerson’s research focus is on developing behavioral interventions, especially those promoting health through nutrition and physical activity, for use in the treatment of alcohol and drug addiction. Herclinical practice is in alcohol and drug detoxification. Emerson is a Faculty Scholar at the Institute on Urban Health Research at Northeastern University and is a previous fellow in Project MAINSTREAM, a national substance abuse interdisciplinary project.

Ann G. Hill, MS, RN, CNAA, BC – MACN Academic Innovative Teaching Award

Since joining the nursing faculty in 2001, Hill has taught several courses in the undergraduate curriculum, including Nursing Vulnerable Populations, Comprehensive Nursing Practicum, Promoting Healthy Communities, and Health Policy. She has been instrumental in incorporating the college’s Health-in-Motion outreach van into the undergraduate curriculum. In addition to her many national and regional awards, Hill and her colleagues have received the Provost’s Practice-Oriented Education (POE) award for their work with the Health-in-Motion van.

The awards along with cash prizes were presented to Ramdin, Emerson and Hill on April 4^th at the MACN meeting held in Regis College.

For more information, please contact Renata Nyul at 617-373-7424 or at r.nyul@neu.edu.

About Northeastern

Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a private research university located in the heart of Boston. Northeastern is a leader in interdisciplinary research, urban engagement, and the integration of classroom learning with real-world experience. The university’s distinctive cooperative education program, where students alternate semesters of full-time study with semesters of paid work in fields relevant to their professional interests and major, is one of the largest and most innovative in the world. The University offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in six undergraduate colleges, eight graduate schools, and two part-time divisions. For more information, please visit www.northeastern.edu.