Kathleen Wheeler, Ph.D., APRN, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, professor of nursing at Fairfield University, has been inducted into the American Academy of Nursing as a new fellow - the highest national award in the nursing profession.

Dr. Wheeler, of Westport, Conn., was selected for the honor by the Academy's 15-member fellow selection committee for her outstanding achievements in the nursing profession. She joins three other individuals at Fairfield University's School of Nursing who have been bestowed with the honor: Jeanne Novotny, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, dean of the School of the Nursing; Doris Troth Lippman, EdD, APRN, FAAN, professor of nursing; and Anne Manton, Ph.D., APRN, FAAN, retired associate professor.

Dr. Novotny said, "We are so proud of Kate because her accomplishments are recognized by her peers on a national level and this brings great honor and prestige to Fairfield University. I am delighted that she has been recognized for her years of hard work and dedication."

The invitation to fellowship is recognition of one's accomplishments within the nursing profession, and it also affords an opportunity to work with other leaders in health care in addressing the issues of the day. The Academy's mission is to serve the public and nursing profession by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge.

Dr. Wheeler, a leader in projects highly significant to the future of psychiatric nursing, was formally inducted as a fellow on November 7 at the Academy's annual awards ceremony and induction banquet in Atlanta. As a fellow, she will now use the letters FAAN after her name. "This award salutes the important and significant accomplishments of many amazing nurses. I am both humbled and deeply honored to be welcomed into the fellowship by those who are in the Academy."

She has practiced as an advanced practice psychiatric nurse specializing in trauma for the past 25 years. She is certified as a clinical specialist in Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing and is a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She has additional certifications in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, hypnosis, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Dr. Wheeler served as co-chair of the national panel that developed the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Competencies, and is the founder and past chair of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties PMHNP Special Interest Group. She is the co-investigator of a national psychiatric nursing graduate program curriculum survey. For her book, "Psychotherapy for the Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse" (Mosby Elsevier, 2008), she received a 2008 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. Dr. Wheeler has also received the 2008 American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) Media Award, and APNA Awards in 2008 for Excellence in Practice, and in 2004 for Excellence in Education.

She earned a B.S.N. from Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in nursing from New York University. For more information about the School of Nursing, visit www.fairfield.edu/son/ .

Posted On: 11-12-2009 10:11 AM

Volume: 42 Number: 123