Presented on 26 February 2007 to
Linda Honan Pellico, MSN, PhD
She embodies and gives voice to everything that is best about nursing. Her compassion, intelligence and vision make her an extraordinary ambassador for the profession. For many people, she is the face of nursing: the vivacious lady of Have Bones Will Travel who teaches anatomy and safety to school children; the mother, drill sergeant and philosopher who guides bright and overwhelmed new students into the profession; and the nurse who can decode a thousand complexities to get patients the most effective possible care – and somehow make them laugh while she is doing it. Her service to the Yale School of Nursing, the University and the greater New Haven community are unparalleled. The Graduate Entry Prespeciality in Nursing in particular has been shaped by her spirit and talent. Her pedagogical innovations have made nursing education more effective at Yale and beyond. Hundreds of advanced practice nurses owe their careers in large part to her insistence that they be technically superb clinicians and empathetic human beings. By introducing creative writing into the curriculum, she gave her students the opportunity to reflect deeply on their own struggles and those of their patients. Their essays and poems are creating a body of work that tells nursing’s story to the public in a way that is moving and, like her, unrelentingly honest. One of her mantras on teaching goes something like: “Don’t just tell ‘em. Show em!” She has shown Yale students and the world what a nurse should be: someone generous enough to devote her whole mind and whole heart to the care of a stranger. Someone brave enough to stand a bureaucracy on its ear, yet always humble enough to listen. For so completely embodying the ideal of caring, the Yale School of Nursing is proud to give the Excellence in Caring in Chronic Illness Award to Linda Honan Pellico, MSN, PhD.
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Center for Excellence in Chronic Illness Care
YSN Centers
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