Rebecca M. Patton was named the inaugural holder of the Lucy Jo Atkinson Professorship in Perioperative Nursing at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
About Patton
A member of the nursing school faculty since 2011 and a former two-term president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), Patton created the nation’s first perioperative requirement for the BSN curriculum. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses and was one of the editors of Nurses Making Policy: From Bedside to Boardroom.
Patton received the ANA Distinguished Membership Award and Sigma Theta Tau International Founder Dorothy Garrigus Adams Award for Excellence in Fostering Professional Standards. She also is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
About the professorship
The professorship, named for the late Lucy Jo Atkinson, is the nation’s first dedicated to perioperative nursing. A member of the BSN Class of 1954, Atkinson was the first on-site operating room consultant for Ethicon Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, and a co-editor for four editions of Berry and Kohn’s Operating Room Technique.
“Atkinson was a pioneer in the field of perioperative nursing,” said Carol M. Musil, interim dean for the School of Nursing. “I can think of no better steward of that legacy than Dr. Patton as the inaugural chair of the Lucy Jo Atkinson Professorship.”