Dr. Cuddigan named Outstanding Teacher

Janet Cuddigan, Ph.D., right, counsels Janet Drelicharz, a master’s level student in administration, on a poster presentation. Dr. Cuddigan — along with three other faculty members — will receive this year’s Outstanding Teaching Award on Tuesday during the 4 p.m. Annual Faculty Meeting in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.

A cheerleader, a counselor, a mentor, a friend. The roles of a teacher involve much more than just lesson plans and grading scales.

To Janet Cuddigan, Ph.D., chairwoman of Adult Health and Illness in the UNMC College of Nursing, teaching is about people.

“I have a part, albeit a small part, in helping nursing students to become competent, compassionate caregivers who in turn affect millions of lives,” she said. “That is something I can be proud of.”

In order for her students to become competent, compassionate caregivers, Dr. Cuddigan demonstrates those qualities in the classroom and clinic.

It is because of this that she has been selected as one of the Outstanding Teachers at UNMC to be honored at the Annual Faculty Meeting ceremony on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.

“I was thrilled,” Dr. Cuddigan said of hearing she was chosen for the prestigious award. “I do what I do because I love it. It’s frosting on the cake to have it acknowledged.”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as Dr. Cuddigan’s mother also is a teacher. At 85, Jackie Gilbert is still teaching and tutoring children with learning disabilities part-time at Blessed Sacrament School in Omaha. Also impressive is that when Dr. Cuddigan, her brother, Mike, and their mother all took the Graduate Record Examination at the same time, mom got the highest score.

Facts about Dr. Cuddigan An Omaha native Married for 34 hears to husband, Tim, a disability attorney. Together they have three adult children, sons, Patrick and Sean; daughter, Molly, and one grandson, Dillon. Son-in-law Matt Freyer and soon-to-be-daughter-in-law, Kortney Kaczmarek, complete the family. Her hobbies include cooking with friends and watching Dillon play football, baseball and basketball.

“We have a lot to live up to,” Dr. Cuddigan said, laughing. “I don’t think I’ll go to 85, but will keep teaching as long as I enjoy what I’m doing.”

It’s been 25 years since Dr. Cuddigan launched her teaching career at Creighton University Medical Center and more than a decade since she started at UNMC.

Dr. Cuddigan graduated from Creighton University in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She earned her master’s degee in 1978 and her Ph.D. in 1999 at UNMC in the same field. She completed a post doctoral fellowship at the VA in Iowa City in 2003.

“I love clinical care especially in the critical care units,” she said. “I saw teaching as a way of sharing that love and passing it on to others.”

She has a steady calm when it comes to working with students in the adult intensive care unit and a laid-back attitude in the classroom, while still upholding her students to the highest of standards.

“I see my role as creating situations and environments where nursing students can be at their best,” she said. “I really spend a lot of time analyzing the complexities of nursing science and figuring out the best way to communicate them to my students, using simulation and case scenarios to make the facts come alive.”

Her pupils have taken note. Over the years, Dr. Cuddigan has received excellent evaluations noted Bernice Yates, Ph.D., who nominated Dr. Cuddigan for the award, citing several undergraduate and graduate students’ comments.

“I don’t think that Janet could ever be replaced,” wrote one student. “She is one of the best instructors that I’ve had over the course of my college education.”

Said another: “Dr. Cuddigan was an exceptional teacher. She took advantage of teaching moments at every opportunity and encouraged us to develop our skills and individual style when caring for patients.”

Dr. Cuddigan is heavily involved with pressure ulcer research and is considered a national expert on pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. A member of the Skin Wound Advisory Team (SWAT), Dr. Cuddigan helped to develop evidence-based practices and continuous quality improvement initiatives that significantly reduced the occurrence of pressure ulcers at The Nebraska Medical Center. She also is a member of National Pressure Ulcers Advisory Panel and co-chairwoman of the international guideline developing committee on pressure ulcers.

Dr. Cuddigan chats with Glynis Forman, center, a senior level student completing her preceptorship in the AICU with staff nurse Maggie Davis, left, a former undergraduate student and current graduate student/assistant at UNMC.

“Dr. Cuddigan has made a significant contribution to the teaching mission of the College of Nursing and to the knowledge base and science in the area of pressure ulcer identification, measurement and treatment,” Dr. Yates said. “I am very impressed with her accomplishments.”

While she is proud of her achievements, Dr. Cuddigan takes more satisfaction in those of her students.

“I take a lot of pride in what they accomplish,” she said. “It’s a pleasure for me to see them succeed.”

She believes she has a duty as a health care educator not only to students, but also to patients and the public.

“I see nursing as an opportunity to build relationships with patients and families and have an impact on bettering their lives, and in some cases, helping them toward a dignified death,” Dr. Cuddigan said. “If, at the end of your life, you can say you had an influence on someone, then it was a life well-lived.”