UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Susan J. Loeb, nursing professor and doctoral program director in Penn State's Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, has been named the recipient of the 2024 Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania (NAP) Nursing Research Award. Loeb was formally recognized at NAPs 35th annual Awards Gala on Oct. 25 in Harrisburg.
As designated by the NAP organization, the "Nursing Research" category recognizes nominees who have shown commitment to excellence in their nursing practice through their research and as such have published findings that enhance nursing practice, patient care, education, and science in the academic and clinical practice settings.
Loeb and her research team have developed training programs, titled "Just Care" and "Just Care for Dementia," which consist of online learning modules for corrections staff and peer caregivers. These programs ensure that staff and caregivers have the knowledge, skills and self-care resources needed to provide geriatric and end-of-life care. Loeb has served as principal investigator or multiple principal investigator for five grants from the National Institute on Aging and another from the National Institute of Nursing Research. These grants support her team’s studies focused on improving the health and health care of those aging and nearing end-of-life in the nation’s prisons. She collaborates with Erin Kitt-Lewis, associate research professor in Penn State’s Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, and Barbara Walkosz, senior scientist at Klein Buendel Inc., a health education technology company in Golden, Colorado.
Loeb began her nursing career as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) at a small community hospital in Huntingdon County, where she provided care to incarcerated individuals when the state prison’s infirmary could not meet their health needs. She is recognized for her two decades as a nurse scientist conducting significant research on health and healthcare in correctional settings.
“It is a great honor to receive this esteemed award," Loeb said, "and to stand alongside other Nightingale scholarship and award recipients with such diverse educational backgrounds and career experiences, from licensed practical nursing (LPN) to research doctoral degrees like my own.”
Also celebrated at the gala were Taylor Criste, Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing Alumni Society Board member, who was a finalist for a nursing administration award, and Maggie O’Neill, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program student who received a scholarship.
Established in 1989, NAP continues to serve as a pathway to promote and support nursing in Pennsylvania, an essential strategy to recruit and retain nurses, in order to meet the state's future healthcare needs. The statewide, non-profit organization, guided by leaders in nursing, business, industry and other healthcare fields, focuses on recognizing exemplary nursing practice, and granting scholarships to students pursuing degrees in nursing at all levels. Over the past 32 years, NAP has provided more than 200 nursing scholarships totaling over $410,000 and has honored more than 800 Pennsylvania nurses at its annual gala.
To learn more about the Nightingale Awards organization, visit this link.