LSUHealthNO Educators Awarded Nursing “Oscars”

Two members of the faculty of LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing earned top honors at the Louisiana Nurses Foundation’s 2017 Nightingale Gala & Awards Ceremony. LSU Health New Orleans congratulates Todd Tartavoulle, DNS, APRN, CNS-BC, Program Director for the Traditional BSN Program and Gerontology CNS Program, Nurse Administrator of the Year; and Ellen Beyer, DNP, MBA, MN, RN, PHCNS-BC, APRN, Instructor of Clinical Nursing, Nurse Educator of the Year. Dr. Myrtis J. Snowden, Emeritus Professor at LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing, was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Nurses Foundation Hall of Fame.

According to Louisiana Nurses Foundation, the Nightingale Awards ceremony is a special time when the nursing profession honors its own. The awards program is the "academy awards" of nursing and health care, which recognizes quality service, commitment, and excellence for registered nurses in the state of Louisiana, as well as the institutions and organizations that employ them. The awards recognize leadership and innovation in professional nursing.

Dr. Tartavoulle’s vision and leadership have contributed significantly to the achievements and accolades bestowed upon LSU Health New Orleans’ School of Nursing. Based on his analysis of progression data, he proposed the adjustment of the School of Nursing’s admission criteria. This was done to encourage students to focus on studies that gave them the best chance of successful, on-time progression through the nursing curriculum. He also promoted making the most of the application process. Changes that were instituted included having the students complete the writing sample on campus and conducting the applicant interviews on video.

Dr. Beyer displays excellence and innovation in education through the employment of many under-utilized educational interventions that effect learning and change in health professionals. She is involved in interprofessional education and sees the need to educate new and practicing health professionals simultaneously and collaboratively. She has developed and co-directed an Interprofessional Education (IPE) simulation with nursing students and occupational therapy (OT) students. This was initiated as a partnership between the two disciplines to allow the nursing students to teach the OT students how to transfer patients with medical lines and to allow the OT students to teach the nursing students patient transfers and assistance with Activities of Daily Living. Results showed statistically significant changes and the potential for incorporation into the curriculum. This information has been disseminated at both a local and national level through an oral presentation at the Occupational Therapy National Conference and a poster presentation at Sigma Theta Tau Scholar’s Day. The 2014 IPE Simulation and results were accepted in November for publication in the Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice.

The LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing is the only Louisiana nursing school integrated into an academic health sciences center. It provides local, regional, national, and international leadership in the education of professional nurses to function as generalists, advanced practitioners, educators, scholars, and researchers who shape the delivery of nursing practice and education.

The Louisiana Nurses Foundation (LNF) was organized in 1986 as the research, education and charitable subsidiary of the Louisiana State Nurses Association (LSNA). Since its founding in 1904, the mission of the Louisiana State Nurses Association has grown to focus on the improvement of health care services for the community, to foster high standards of nursing, and to stimulate and promote the professional development of nurses.