Uniformed Services University dean receives AACN-GE Pioneering Spirit Award

PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor, Graduate School of Nursing, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Md., the nation's federal health sciences university — will receive the GE Healthcare-AACN Pioneering Spirit Award.

The award, from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and supported by GE Healthcare, will be given at the 2011 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, Chicago, April 30-May 5. This AACN Visionary Leadership Award recognizes significant contributions that influence high acuity and critical care nursing and relate to the association's mission, vision and values.

Hinshaw was the first permanent director of the National Center of Nursing Research and first director of the National Institute for Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Md. In these roles she led successful efforts to position nursing research within the mainstream of public-funded biomedical and behavioral science in the U.S. She led the institute in its support of disease prevention, health promotion and environments that enhance nursing patient care outcomes.

Hinshaw's own research focuses on quality of care, nurses' sensitivity to patient and family needs, patient outcomes, measurement of those outcomes and building positive work environments for nurses. She discovered predictors of nursing staff turnover and pioneered studying the effect of nursing interventions on staff and patient outcomes.

Hinshaw is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM), a leader in nursing education and research and a widely published scholar. She served as vice-chair of the IOM report, "Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment for Nurses." Her service to the healthcare profession includes positions on numerous task forces, advisory boards and a term as president of the American Academy of Nursing.

Prior to joining the Uniformed Services University in 2008, Hinshaw served as dean and professor of nursing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Other academic appointments include the University of Arizona, the University of California San Francisco and the University of Kansas.