SAN ANTONIO (July 25, 2013) — Eileen Breslin, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, today was named to a blue-ribbon advisory committee that will establish guidelines for a national program to recognize nurses who demonstrate leadership in compassionate, humanistic care. Award winners will do this as educators, researchers, mentors and practitioners, and the program will also honor students who exhibit the same qualities.
Dr. Breslin is among 12 nationally recognized academic and practice leaders from nursing and medicine who will lay the groundwork for the recognition program, which is a joint initiative of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. Dr. Breslin is president-elect of the AACN, an organization that represents 730 member schools of nursing at public and private institutions nationwide.
The Gold Foundation administers numerous award programs that acknowledge medical students, residents and medical school faculty who demonstrate humanistic values, ideals and qualities. The foundation also funds nationally renowned humanistic and patient-centered research and faculty fellowship programs with the support of other philanthropists. The AACN and the Gold Foundation are now partnering to develop the same kind of programming for nursing.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 29,000 graduates. The $736 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.