June 6, 2018
In the space of four days, of the dean of Ursuline College’s Breen School of Nursing won an international award for her commitment to quality and safety education and a 2018 graduate won a Northeast Ohio award for his hard work and passion for nursing.
Dean Patricia Sharpnack, DNP, was presented with the Linda Cronenwett QSEN Leadership Award on May 30 at an international forum in Florida attended by nurse educators from throughout the United States and beyond. QSEN stands for Quality and Safety Education for Nurses.
The award honors an emerging nurse leader in the field of quality and safety education who has “significantly contributed to the education of nurses or student nurses through exemplary vision, influence, critical thinking, communication and role modeling.”
Sharpnack, dean of the Breen School of Nursing since 2014, holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in nursing. Widely published in her field, she is also board-certified as a nurse educator and as an advanced nursing executive. She is a fellow in the Academy of Nurse Educators and president of the Ohio Board of Nursing.
Celin "Ray" Caraballo won the Next Generation of Care Award from Cleveland Magazine and the Greater Cleveland Nurses Association. This award is bestowed annually upon one distinguished student nominated by an institution of higher learning in Northeast Ohio.
Caraballo was inspired by his grandmother, a nurse who saved him from a burning house when he was three, and by the burn-unit nurses who cared for him after. He became a top student in the Breen School of Nursing, where his professors called him a respectful team player and credited him with strong curiosity, a command of knowledge and critical thinking skills, and a deep level of compassion and empathy for patients. Caraballo was also one of the few nursing students to choose to serve a practicum in a burn unit.
Cleveland Magazine, which co-sponsored the Next Generation of Care Award as part of its annual Faces of Care initiative spotlighting Northeast Ohio nurses, featured Ursuline student Lisa Kman in an article titled “The Future of Care.” The magazine noted that Kman hopes to care for newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit. In the article, she lauded Ursuline College for “its approach to medicine and working with the other medical people and the patient to find the best ways to make sure people get the best care.”
