Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania Honor Nursing Faculty

The Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania (NAP), a statewide, non-profit organization that celebrates exemplary nursing practice, honored two faculty members from the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at its 35th Annual NAP Gala on Friday, October 25, at the Hilton Harrisburg Hotel. Both were nominated in the Nurse Education category for their ability to inspire nursing students and practicing nurses. 

“Congratulations to Dr. Copel and Dr. Meyer on this recognition of their excellent work to ‘educate the educators’,” said Donna S. Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN, Connelly Endowed Dean and Professor. “It demonstrates their dedication to our mission of strengthening the nursing profession with highly educated and compassionate clinicians, scholars and leaders.”

Professor Linda Copel, PhD, RN, PMHCNS, BC, CNE, ANEF, NCC, CGP, FAPA, Interim PhD Program Director, received the Nightingale Award for Nursing Education - Academia. The award recognizes her scholarly research and the dissemination of that research through education.

A talented advanced practice nurse educator, Dr. Copel shares her expertise through studies, methods and dissemination with students. Over decades, she has generated important science around topics such as intimate partner violence (IPV); experiences of frontline workers and their family members in the COVID-19 pandemic, including IPV; stigma in vulnerable populations, evaluation of student perceptions of human trafficking; women with disabilities and injuries related to IPV; and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in clients with mental health issues.

Dr. Copel was part of the team that developed and implemented the College of Nursing’s PhD program more than 20 years ago and has taught in the program since then. Doctoral students continually seek her consultation throughout the intricacies of their dissertation research, whether the methodology addresses a quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods approach.  

After students graduate, Dr. Copel often remains an active mentor, inspiring them to share their knowledge in clinical and community settings; for example, in developing nurse-run support groups related to professional bereavement and advocating for the prevention and detection of human trafficking in supply chains for both products and human services.

Clinical Associate Professor Susan Meyers, PhD, RNC, CNE, CPNP-PC, a two-time Villanova alumna for her BSN and PhD, was a finalist in the Nursing Education - Staff Development category, for the promotion of evidence-based practices within a clinical setting.   

With extensive experience in academic and professional settings, she employs effective teaching strategies help to ease the transition for new-to-practice nurses and provide much-needed support for the practicing nurses who work with them.

Dr. Meyers has created a Clinical Preceptor Educational Program in cooperation with a major health care system to elevate the standard of nursing practice and patient care. Using the results of a learning needs assessment and focus group discussions with current preceptors, she incorporated and promoted evidence-based practices in clinical settings, helping preceptors to teach clinical nurses the importance of basing care decisions on the best available evidence while demonstrating collaboration, leadership skills and professionalism. Dr. Copel’s poster presentation for this work, “The Preceptor Partnership: When a Health System Collaborates with a University to Achieve Excellence,” received first place in the 2024 FCN Annual Research Symposium.