VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA) recently honored Ruth McDermott-Levy, PhD, RN, an assistant professor in Villanova University’s College of Nursing, with its 2011 Nurse as Global Citizen Award. Committed to community and public health nursing, McDermott-Levy’s involvement includes efforts both locally and globally.
McDermott-Levy is part of Villanova University’s interdisciplinary telehealth team that is working to improve health in remote areas of Nicaragua. She works with nursing students to bring improved health to underprivileged areas, and has also joined nursing students in efforts to improve knowledge of water-borne illness while on educational service trips to Nicaragua.
As an advisor for undergraduate Omani nursing students, she has traveled to the Sultanate of Oman and conducted research on the experiences of Omani nursing students. In Pennsylvania, she accompanies her students as they practice community health in inner city schools, and teaches how social and economic disparities lead to health disparities. Her work has also extended to Philadelphia’s Arab immigrant population where she educates immigrants on obtaining healthcare in the U.S. and methods to promote health.
Dr. McDermott-Levy speaks nationally in the immigrant population’s inequality of healthcare services. Her passion for environmental health has led her to Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. where she advocated for cleaner air and water. Additionally, Dr. McDermott-Levy chairs the PSNA Environmental Health Committee where she co-authors Nurses for a Green Keystone and participates in PSNA environmental events.
“Dr. McDermott-Levy is a visionary global nurse educator. In addition to her hands-on health care across the globe, she is passionate about environmental health and leads other nurses in advocating for cleaner air and water,” states PSNA Chief Executive Office Betsy M. Snook, MEd, BSN, RN. “Dr. McDermott-Levy has earned a place of honor along with more than 295 past PSNA award recipients who, as a group, have received recognition beginning in 1954.”
The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA) is the non-profit voice for nurses in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Representing more than 208,000 nurses, the Association works to be essential in advancing, promoting and supporting the profession of nursing to improve health for all in the Commonwealth. PSNA is a constituent member of the American Nurses Association (www.panurses.org).
Since 1842, Villanova University’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's five colleges – the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing and the Villanova University School of Law. As students grow intellectually, Villanova prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.
