Assistant Professor Frankie B. Hale of the Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing (NAWSON) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa earned an award for writing excellence of a first-time school nurse author.
Hale, who teaches pathophysiology, among other undergraduate and graduate courses at NAWSON, served as first author of the manuscript, “Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on school nurses’ resiliency and ability to cope: A mixed methods study in the state of Hawaiʻi.” Co-authors included Deborah Mattheus, Betty Fletcher, Alexandra Michel and Holly B. Fontenot.
Hale’s honor is the First Publication Award from The Journal of School Nursing (JOSN).
“Winning this award from JOSN/Sage was humbling, and I am incredibly thankful for everyone involved,” Hale said. “I believe when we think of frontline nurses, school nurses should be among them. We need to know about the hard work school nurses input daily, from their front line, in their everyday effort to promote a healthy and safe school environment.”
Hale is now working on a follow-up study with Mattheus, exploring school nurses’ stress, resilience and workplace issues in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The manuscript was chosen from eligible manuscripts in 2023 in JOSN, a bi-monthly, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on improving the health of school children and the health of the school community, published by SAGE Publications.
Before joining academia in 2010, Hale served as a registered nurse for 14 years. She earned her bachelor of science in nursing from Howard University, specialized in nursing education for her master of science from Georgetown University and earned her PhD in nursing from UH Mānoa.
