Philadelphia, PA – The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) today presented its prestigious Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) of the Year Award to Mary E. Lough, PhD, RN, CNS, CCNS, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Critical Care at Stanford Health Care in Stanford, Calif.
The Award recognizes an NACNS member for outstanding professional achievement in all aspects of CNS practice. It is presented each year to a nurse who demonstrates CNS competencies and exemplary practice in patient care, nursing and health care delivery systems.
Lough is a leader in promoting change and collaboration to improve patient outcomes.
She is a member of the interdisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU) continuous quality improvement committee at Stanford Health Care, and participates in multidisciplinary rounds in the ICU. She is also a Team Leader on a project with the national Comprehensive Unit Safety Program to improve care of mechanically ventilated patients.
One of her key initiatives is aimed at improving communication between patients’ families and the ICU health care team. She is a staff member on the ICU Patient Family Advisory Council, and has worked with staff nurses to develop a brochure for families that explains the purpose of a family meeting.
As co-organizer of the critical care training program at Stanford Hospital, Lough develops the curriculum, coordinates and teaches classes, works with preceptors, and mentors new ICU nurses. She also teaches critical care registered nurse review programs for nurses at Stanford Health Care and surrounding hospitals.
Lough is a long-time co-editor of a series of critical care nursing textbooks that are widely used nationally and internationally. Her latest book on Hemodynamic Monitoring: Evolving Technologies and Clinical Practice, received second place in the 2015 AJN Book of the Year Awards, in the category of Critical Care and Emergency Nursing. Lough is also a Clinical Professor in the Department of Physiological Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Nursing and regularly mentors CNS masters students for a six-month residency in critical care.
Lough was recently selected by Stanford Health Care and Stanford University to develop a research program to improve outcomes in critical care and acute care.
“It is our great honor to present the CNS of the Year Award to Dr. Lough,” said NACNS 2016 President Sharon Horner, PhD, RN, MC-CNS, FAAN. “Her commitment to improving patient care, ensuring family involvement in care, and educating and mentoring nurses are without parallel. She is deeply involved in a range of activities that not only are advancing and improving patient care, but ensuring that other health care providers understand, participate and benefit from those advancements.”
Lough earned her BSN from the University of Manchester in Manchester, England, and her MSN and PhD from the University of California, San Francisco. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing.