Kirkpatrick receives first ISNA leadership award

The Indiana State Nurses Association selected Jane Kirkpatrick, former head of the School of Nursing and professor emerita, as the first honoree of the Distinguished Nurse Leadership Award. This award, given in September 2017, recognizes excellence in leading, motivating, mentoring, and promoting the advancement of nurses in a variety of settings.
Kirkpatrick led faculty in significant program growth, including Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner programs, a PhD program in nursing, and doubling the size of the baccalaureate program. These initiatives meet state and national shortages in primary care, nursing education and direct care.
Faculty infusion of systems thinking and quality improvement into the curricula of all nursing programs was instrumental in Purdue’s national recognition by the National League for Nursing (NLN) in 2017 as a Nursing Center of Excellence in the area of enhancing student learning and professional development, and by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses in 2015 with the Innovation in Professional Nursing Award. Nurse-led clinics affiliated with the school earned Health Resources and Services Administration quality recognition in 2018.
Kirkpatrick served in multiple leadership roles with the Indiana Center for Nursing and the Council of Indiana Nursing Deans and Directors, and represented these organizations on the Indiana Access to Care coalition. She also served on the NLN Excellence Review Panel and as a judge for International awards for Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society.
Kirkpatrick received Purdue’s 2017 Butler Leadership in Action award and is named in Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers, and is a member of Purdue’s Teaching Academy. She retired in 2018 after a distinguished career.