USF Nursing’s Ponrathi Athilingam named Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP)
Ponrathi Athilingam, PhD, ACNP, Assistant Professor and Director of Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) Concentration at the University of South Florida College of Nursing, has been named a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP), an honor bestowed upon a limited number of nurse practitioner leaders in the nation.
Dr. Athilingam, who has been a nurse for 40 years and a nurse practitioner for 9 years, has been recognized with the award for her outstanding contributions to health care through clinical practice, research, education, and policy.
“I am grateful to the faculty members who nominated me for this great honor,” Dr. Athilingam said. “This recognition helps our students and community know that USF College of Nursing has stellar faculties who are nationally recognized for their clinical excellence.”
As an acute nurse practitioner, Dr. Athilingam has always been interested in exploring cognitive impairment among heart-failure patients and the potential contributing factors for readmission and non-compliance. This interest led to her investigation on the use of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment to determine cognitive dysfunction in patients with heart failure. She received the Heart Failure Society of America’s Nursing Investigator Award in 2008 for her work in this area.
“My investigations continue on the importance of prognostic and functional classification of heart failure, the role of cytokines and cognitive function in HF patients, and the relationship of ACEI/ARBS in cognitive function in HF patients,” Dr. Athilingam said. “I am currently conducting a pilot computerized cognitive intervention study to enhance self-care management and quality of life for heart failure patients.”
Dr. Athilingam has received several other awards including the Katharine Donohoe Scholarly Practitioner Award from the University of Rochester in 2007 for her exemplary work in the heart failure and transplant program, and the Service for Humanity Leadership Award in 2010 for outstanding service and contribution to Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc. and women with heart disease.
FAANP was established by AANP in 2000, and recognizes nurse practitioners who are visionaries committed to the global advancement of high quality health care.
Susan E. Kennel, PhD, ARNP, Assistant Professor and Director of the Pediatric Primary Care Concentration at the USF College of Nursing, joins Dr. Athilingam in this year’s AANP acknowledgment. Dr. Kennel has also been named a Fellow of the AANP.
They will both be recognized during the FAANP inductees’ ceremony at the AANP’s 27th National Conference on June 22, 2012 at the Peabody Orlando Hotel in Orlando, Fla.
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