Nursing Faculty Member Receives Alumni Award From Penn State

Janet McMahon, associate professor of nursing at Pennsylvania College of Technology, was selected to receive the 2005 Emerging Professional-Graduate Degree Award from the College of Health and Human Development Alumni Society at The Pennsylvania State University.

The award honors alumni who have received a degree from the College of Health and Human Development within the past 10 years and have demonstrated professional excellence and exemplary voluntary community involvement in a health and human development field.

McMahon earned a master's degree in nursing from Penn State. Since the award's creation in 1987, only 24 alumni have received the honor.

"Her work ethic, professional achievements and service to her profession are a fine example for future nurses," said Raymond T. Coward, the Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz professor and dean for the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State.

McMahon has taught nursing at Penn College since 1991. Among her activities, she recently served on the National Council of State Boards of Nursing master pool to evaluate national nursing-exam questions, and she participates in the National Organization for Associate Degree Nursing and the Junior League of Williamsport.

She is an instructor for the American Heart Association, a program evaluator for the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission and a textbook writer and reviewer for publishing companies Mosby, Elsevier Science and Prentice Hall.

McMahon also presented two sessions at the National Association for Associate Degree Nursing national conference, held in Pittsburgh on Nov. 5-8. The presentations were a four-hour workshop called "Treating the Nursing Diagnosis: Clinically Deficient at Risk for Failure," and a second talk titled "Desperate Measures in Desperate Times in Nursing Education: Teaching New and Experienced Faculty How to Teach."

The conference is for nurse educators teaching in associate-degree programs and was attended by about 275 people. McMahon was named to the association's national education committee for next year and is part of the planning committee for the association's convention next year in Charlotte, N.C.

She was recently selected to be among "distinguished faculty" to present at Drexel University's Nursing Education Institute, scheduled for June in Providence, R.I.

For more information about the academic programs offered by the School of Health Sciences at Penn College, call (570) 327-4519, send e-mail or visit online.