Three Virginia Commonwealth University nurses selected for national recognition

By Michael Ford
University News Services

RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 17, 2004) – The National League for Nursing, the oldest nursing organization in the United States, has given the dean of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing its award for outstanding leadership.

In addition, two VCU School of Nursing faculty members have been named new fellows to the American Academy of Nursing.

The league honored Nancy F. Langston, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the VCU School of Nursing, in October calling her a role model and mentor for future organizational leaders. Langston has been active in the league for several decades and has served on its national committees and boards since 1979. She served as its president from 1999-2001 and as founding chair of the league’s Foundation for Nursing Education for the past two years.

Langston has focused on recruiting strong faculty and increasing research since joining VCU in 1991. She currently leads a school of nursing ranked 25th for National Institutes of Health-funded research. Langston earned her bachelor’s degree from Nursing University of Arkansas, her master’s degree from Emory University and her doctoral degree from Georgia State University.

Patrick J. Coyne and Mary Jo Grap recently were named new Fellows to the American Academy of Nursing. Coyne is a clinical nurse specialist for palliative care and pain management. Grap is a professor in the VCU School of Nursing.

“These awards are wonderful examples of excellent clinical practices at the bedside and excellence in the classroom here at VCU Medical Center,” said Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., vice president for health sciences and CEO of the VCU Health System.

Coyne, clinical director of VCU Medical Center’s Thomas Palliative Care, has a national reputation for his work with oncology patients. Coyne initiated and oversees the multi-disciplinary cancer pain center within VCU’s Massey Cancer Center, which accepts referrals on difficult cancer and HIV-pain management cases from throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

Coyne, who has dual faculty appointments in the school of nursing and school of medicine, serves as a preceptor, lecturing graduate and undergraduate nursing students, medical and pharmacy interns, as well as residents and fellows. Coyne is a researcher and experienced national and international presenter of issues related to pain and palliative care and has published dozens of articles on pain management, symptom control and issues related to end-stage disease. 

Grap, Ph.D., R.N., an acute care nurse practitioner, divides her time between research projects, the clinical setting and the classroom, focusing on care of the critically ill in the undergraduate, masters and doctoral nursing programs.

Grap is a regular presenter to regional and national nursing conferences and has published numerous studies on critical care nursing, most recently on interventions to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia. She also serves as the associate editor for the American Journal of Critical Care, a critical care nursing research journal.