Meet the 2024 Winner: Linda L. Chlan, PhD, RN, ATSF, FAAN

Dr. Linda L. Chlan currently serves as the Associate Dean for Nursing Research in the Department of Nursing, Division of Nursing Research and is a Professor of Nursing at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Chlan’s program of research is focused on mitigating the adverse sequelae associated with invasive mechanical ventilatory support among critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units through individualized symptom management interventions. Despite advances in technology and treatments, critically ill patients continue to suffer in this unpredictable clinical environment as well as experience myriad unrelieved, distressful symptoms. Her research studies focus on developing, testing, and implementing interventions for co- or self-management of symptoms in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. Dr. Chlan’s research has extensively studied music listening as a novel non-pharmacological intervention to reduce stress, anxiety, and the ICU-acquired syndrome of delirium (a form of acute brain dysfunction) to improve short-term and post-ICU outcomes, including quality of life, in complex and seriously ill patients.

Dr. Chlan has received numerous grant awards from the National Institutes of Health to support her research. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Chlan was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Research Honor Society International Nursing Research Hall of Fame.

Dr. Chlan is committed to mentoring the next generation of nurse scientists and inspiring nurses to engage in clinical research to generate the necessary evidence to inform nursing practice to improve patient outcomes.

Description:

The purpose of this award is to recognize exceptional contributions to mentoring and training of early career individuals in research and/or clinical practice. We encourage applications from: 1) Midcareer individuals (e.g. 6 + years since completion of post graduate training) who have mentored undergraduate and/or graduate students in research and/or clinical care; 2) senior investigators who have mentored pre- and/or post-doctoral scholars and; 3) early career faculty and clinicians. Individuals with a record of mentoring interdisciplinary and interprofessional colleagues and/or mentoring efforts that achieve a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment in nursing are preferred. We encourage applications from nominees with diverse backgrounds.

Materials for nomination:

• Nominees CV which includes any scholarly or service activities of applicant within ATS
• Table that lists current and past mentees including mentee’s current employment/position and number of products (e.g. grant funding, publications, educational attainment or other relevant metrics)
• Nomination letter by one or more mentees describing the track record of successful mentorship, impact on career development and career advancement of the mentee
• Personal statement (1 page max) describing scoring criteria (teaching/mentoring contributions including documented success in how their mentorship has supported the attainment of a diverse, inclusive and equitable environment in their institution, research setting or clinical setting, participation in ATS assembly or ATS activities).

Criteria:

a. Registered nurse

b. ATS nursing assembly member for at least one year

Scoring metric:

a. Mentoring experience

b. Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary mentorship

c. Efforts to achieve diverse, equitable and inclusive environment in nursing  

Scoring scale:

a. Mentoring experience: evaluated by number of mentees, quality of mentoring (as described by mentees) or years spent in a mentorship role. Those with multiple mentees, over a long period of time and with exceptional descriptions of their mentoring capabilities will be scored higher (5/5) than those with 1-2 mentees and weak nomination letters (1/5)

b. Interprofessional/interdisciplinary mentorship: evaluated by the nominees commitment to mentoring nurses and other interprofessional and interdisciplinary colleagues. Individuals who have worked with mentees from diverse disciplines and subspecialties (e.g., physicians, social workers, nurse clinicians) will be scored higher than those who have mentored nurse researchers in academia only.