Karen Macauley and Karen Deck Named as Winners of 2016 CANP Awards
Recognized by their peers for outstanding achievement in advancing the role of nurse practitioners, Karen Macauley and Karen Deck were honored as the recipients of the 2016 CANP Awards, presented during CANP’s 39th Annual Educational Conference.
A member of CANP’s San Diego North Chapter, Macauley has been a practicing nurse practitioner for the last 20 years, most currently for Hillcrest Internal Medicine and LPL Financial ONSITE occupational health clinic. She is also an Associate Professor and Director of Innovative Learning at the University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science and teaches in the DNP/NP programs.
In her role as Director she oversees technology integration, simulation, and innovative teaching methods for all nursing programs. She has dedicated her efforts to spearheading, designing, and implementing innovative, proactive, and visionary teaching methods into the NP program at USD.
In addition, Macauley also directed the design, fundraising, and construction of an $18 million innovative simulation center and building specifically for NP students. After nine years of planning, the Beyster Institute of Nursing Research opened in September of 2015. This 30,000 square foot space will help foster the growth of USD’s DNP/NP program and meet the ever-increasing need for primary care providers.
Macauley was praised for having demonstrated “exemplary professionalism in the NP role in clinical practice, research, and community affairs, while working diligently in NP education and in promoting the importance of the NP role in primary care.”
Deck began her career as a family nurse practitioner in 1998 at Laguna Beach Community Clinic, where she cares for many who are underinsured or uninsured and undocumented. In 2001, she began speaking and teaching about health topics to adolescents at Laguna Beach High School. During that experience she found teens were not getting the health care they needed. She searched for teen health programs in Laguna Beach, but found none. She then began soliciting funds around the community and secured a $10,000 grant to start a teen clinic. Fifteen years later the teen clinic that Deck began still continues.
In addition, Deck founded the first wellness academy at the high school, a service learning program. She then started “WOW” – Wellness on the Web, her clinic’s website dedicated to promotion of adolescent health.
She was not only passionate about teen health in in Laguna Beach. She also saw the need for women’s care and in 2001 she started the first Women’s Health Day. This event still occurs every May.
A member of the Orange County Chapter and a CANP member since 1994, Deck was cited for displaying “extraordinary commitment to her patients, her students and her community.”
The Nurse Practitioner of Distinction Award specifically recognizes a CANP member who demonstrates excellence in furthering the nurse practitioner role either in legislative efforts or clinical application. The intention is to confer the highest recognition for an NP – to be recognized for excellence by their colleagues.
The Bridging Health Care Needs Award recognizes nurse practitioners who are active as a catalyst for positive change in the health care system and who demonstrate the value of the care nurse practitioners provide to their patients.
See the list of CANP Award winners.