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For printable image click here. Kathleen Schell and Linda Laskowski Jones

For printable image click here. Lauren Bieri

Three nurses associated with the University of Delaware's School of Nursing have received awards from Sigma Theta Tau International, the profession's honor society. Kathleen Schell, assistant professor, received the Research Dissemination Award for a project, “Better Blood Pressure for Better Patient Care”; alumna Linda Laskowski Jones, a vice president at Christiana Care Health System, won the founder's Marie Hippensteel Lingemen Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice; and 2006 graduate Lauren Bieri won the society's Pillar of Service Award.

The Research Dissemination Award recognizes those who have made a major contribution to the nursing profession by making research available in a format that is usable, helpful and provides information that benefits nurses and others.

The research focused on the accuracy of noninvasive blood pressure measurements with emphasis on the differences of blood pressure readings when using the forearm and the upper arm. Schell was the principal investigator of the blood pressure project, and Linda Bucher, professor of nursing, and a group of nurses at Christiana Care also were active in two studies, each involving more than 200 patients.

Schell, Bucher and other team members have been presenters at more than a dozen conferences and meetings, and the findings were published in the American Journal of Critical Care, the DNA Reporter and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses News.

Jones, vice president of emergency, trauma and aeromedical services at Christiana Care, received one of Sigma Theta Tau International's founder's awards, which “recognize extraordinary excellence.”

Bieri, who is labor and delivery nurse for Virtua Health in Voorhees, N.J., was awarded the Pillar of Service Award for new members of Sigma Theta Tau International for her active role in the Delaware Beta Xi chapter. Bieri was inducted into the nursing society in November 2005, and she said, “It's quite an honor to receive an international award this early in my career.”

Media contact: Martin Mbugua, (302) 831-8749, [mbugua@udel.edu]
July 24, 2007