NEW YORK NURSE: January/February 2009
NYSNA members made a strong showing among the “winter appointments” made by the American Nurses Association.
Elisa Mancuso was appointed to the Reference Committee, Edmund Pajarillo was reappointed to the Delegate Credentials Committee, Verlia Brown will serve on the Subcommittee on the Mary Mahoney Award, Susan Casadone was appointed to the Subcommittee on the Mary Ellen Patton Staff Nurse Leadership Award, Winifred Kennedy was reappointed to serve on the Subcommittee on the Shirley Titus Award, Rona Levin will serve on the Subcommittee on the Jessie M. Scott Award, Christine Saltzberg was reappointed to serve on the Subcommittee on the Pearl McIver Public Health Nurse Award, and Jacqueline Grant was appointed to serve as an alternate to the Reference Committee.
Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, a book co-authored by Karen Ballard and Winifred Kennedy, and published by Jones and Bartlett was named one of the top three most valuable nursing texts by the American Journal of Nursing’s 2008 Book of the Year Awards. The judge’s summary said Ballard and Kennedy’s book was “…the overall best instructional tool of the introductory psychiatric nursing textbooks. I would choose this book as a text if I were teaching an introductory class, even if only one book was allowed. There is a very intelligent description of how to do a nursing assessment and how to dovetail it with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV for simplicity. Overall, this well-organized book is the superior general text for the modern busy student.”
Deborah Finnell has been named Certified Addictions Registered Nurse (CARN) of the Year by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). Finnell received the award from Kathleen Caggiano-Siino, executive deputy commissioner for OASAS, during the annual meeting of the New York State Chapter of IntNSA (International Nurses Society on Addictions). Finnell is an assistant professor of nursing at the University at Buffalo, chair of NYSNA’s Statewide Peer Assistance Committee, and president-elect of IntNSA.