Queen’s School of Nursing is proud to celebrate Dr. Mona Sawhney, inaugural recipient of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nursing (NP/APN) Network’s Excellence Award for Clinical Practice.
The Excellence Awards—launched at this year’s virtual ICN/NPAPN conference—seek to recognize the significant contributions of advanced practice nurses, as well as their legacy of impact over the course of their career. The clinical practice category celebrates those who have made sustained contributions to advanced clinical nursing practice, inspiring the wider nursing community and garnering national and/or global recognition for their work.
As a Nurse Practitioner, researcher and educator, Dr. Sawhney has made a tremendous impact within her communities of practice. In addition to her work at the School of Nursing, Dr. Sawhney is currently practicing at Kingston Heath Sciences Centre’s interprofessional Chronic Pain Clinic. Recently she and the team members there collaborated on a study examining pain, mental health, and health care utilization of military veterans compared to civilians. During the pandemic, Dr. Sawhney also led an infection, prevention, and control management team in the Greater Toronto Area, visiting long-term care facilities and other congregate care settings to provide training and education aimed at reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Guided by her clinical experience as an NP with a specialty practice in pain management, Dr. Sawhney’s program of research focuses on evidence-based management of pain and adverse symptoms and advanced practice nursing roles. This includes examining nurses’ roles in managing pain, evaluating interventions to improve patient outcomes with advanced analgesic techniques, and patient’s post-hospital discharge pain experiences.
“More than ever in our current Canadian health system, advanced practice nurses play a critical role in addressing the health needs of our communities” says Dr. Erna Snelgrove-Clarke, Vice-Dean (Health Sciences) & Director of the School of Nursing. “Congratulations to Dr. Sawhney on this outstanding achievement, we’re thrilled to see her recognized for her excellence in clinical practice.”
This year’s ICN NP/APN Network Conference was hosted by The Nurse Practitioner Association of Nova Scotia (NPANS), in collaboration with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Canadian Nurses Association (CAN). It is an international meeting on advanced practice nursing and an opportunity for educators and nursing professionals to connect and expand their learning together