By Staff
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Rachel Z. Booth Endowed Chair in Nursing and Professor Patricia Patrician, PhD, RN, FAAN, has received the 2017 Sam Brown Bridge Builder Award, recognizing her commitment to facilitating collaborations and partnerships across campus that enhance the University’s research and teaching activities.
Given by the UAB School of Public Health to honor the remarkable career of Sam Brown, MD, the award recognizes a faculty member who epitomize Brown’s unique ability to develop and nurture working relationships among faculty and staff across the UAB campus that are vital to the future of the University.
For nearly a decade, Patrician has helped foster relationships with numerous entities across campus, including the School of Health Professions, School of Public Health and Collat School of Business, and with the School’s clinical partners, including the Birmingham VA Medical Center (BVAMC). Her many endeavors include being instrumental in helping develop the foundation for the School’s VA Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) with the BVAMC and, in conjunction with Associate Professor Suzie Miltner, PhD, RN, CNL, NEA-BC, teaching in the first class of the UAB Medicine Quality Academy within the School of Health Professions.
Patrician was presented the award at the annual UAB Faculty Awards Convocation by UAB President Ray Watts, MD, and Provost Pam Benoit, PhD.
“Dr. Patrician epitomizes the collaborative spirit of the Sam Brown Bridge Builder Award,” Benoit said. “Her outstanding record for sustained and unselfish leadership is evidenced by her lasting outcomes in her collaborations across so many schools at UAB.”
In addition to her collaborative work in the University Patrician, a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, teaches in the School’s PhD program, the only one in the state, and is a nationally recognized expert on nurse staffing, the nursing practice environment and patient and nurse outcomes of organizational interventions that address areas such as instituting appropriate staffing, establishing a culture of safety, supporting professional development for nurses, recognizing and rewarding performance excellence and more.
Her current program of research on the safety and quality of nursing care, nursing staffing, nursing burnout and practice environment for our nation’s military nurses is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s TriService Nursing Research Program (TSNRP). She is currently principal investigator on a study of mortality, readmissions and failure-to-rescue in military hospitals and, prior to that, was a co-investigator on a program evaluation of the U.S. Army’s Patient CaringTouch System.
In addition to her appointment in the UAB School of Nursing, Patrician also is a Senior Nurse Faculty/Scholar in the Veteran’s Administration Quality Scholars fellowship program; a scientist in the UAB Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education; and a scholar in the UAB Lister Hill Center for Health Policy.
Patrician characterized the award as a reflection of the impact the entire School, which holds the highest overall national ranking in the state and is the most affordable highly ranked school of nursing nationally, is having locally and globally.
“I think that more than representing what I’ve done, this award represents what the UAB School of Nursing has done to forge new research, and clinical, partnerships across campus because nursing is such an important component of health care,” Patrician said. “We’re working with many different entities, including the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, the School of Dentistry, the School of Optometry and others. And we’re working with community partners, we’re working with global partners. We are everywhere now. We are Blazers on the move.”