2007 Virginia OFA Recipient
Professor of Nursing
Germanna Community College
Dr. Patricia S. Lisk, Professor of Nursing at Germanna Community College, has been a member of the faculty for 21 years. In her tenure at the college, she has integrated cutting-edge technological advances into the educational and clinical settings thereby fostering students’ success, professional development, and life-long learning. One example includes her pivotal role in the program’s adoption of Personal Digital Assistants in the clinical and laboratory settings. She was a recipient of the 2006 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology at the International Conference on College Teaching and Learning for her innovations in traditional and online nursing education. She also received the VCCS Technology in Education award for her work in the development of the Commonwealth Nursing program.
Dr. Lisk is a tireless advocate of online education. With the ongoing nursing shortage in Virginia, the need for an accessible, high quality, online nursing program became apparent. The first associate degree online nursing program in Virginia has admitted the first cohorts of students. Dr. Lisk developed numerous online modules, computerized activities and streaming video modules to augment the delivery of this curriculum. She is a recognized leader promoting the mission, the development, and the vision of the Commonwealth Nursing program (CNP).
Dr. Lisk has been instrumental in the development of two innovative clinical environments for nursing students. She transitioned an area designated as an auto repair lab into a Wellness Education Center. Physical assessment tools and nursing documentation systems were created and instituted. Each semester, nursing students provide individualized wellness assessments, screenings and wellness education to hundreds of clients from the college’s surrounding communities.
Most recently, following grant funding, Dr. Lisk has converted traditional nursing labs into virtual hospital settings where students independently supervise, manage, and provide nursing care to groups of human patient simulators (Sim Man, Noelle Maternity Simulator, and Sim Baby). Programmed with increasingly complex learning experiences, these simulators provide realistic nursing experiences allowing students to think critically and make astute clinical judgments in a safe, controlled learning environment.
A colleague notes that “[t]hree things come to mind when I think of Patti: her unmatched dedication to the success of her students, her dynamic personality that is carried through all facets of her job and her constant endeavor to keep her students and her department at the forefront of technology in the nursing field.” Another colleague asserts that “Dr. Lisk utilizes knowledge within the nursing program beyond face value and strives to transform those that she interacts with, students, colleagues and administration, to a higher level of understanding and practice. Dr Lisk exemplifies ‘teaching at its best’ in everything she does.” Dr. Lisk received her Doctor of Arts in Community College Education from George Mason University.