AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award - The Arnold P. Gold Foundation

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) jointly created the AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, to recognize the impact of interprofessional collaboration between nurses and physicians that has fostered humanism in healthcare. We define humanism in healthcare as clinically excellent care that is kind, safe, and trustworthy.

Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award: Stephen H. Berns, MD, and Kacey Boyle, MSPC, RN, CHPN, who created TalkVermont to foster meaningful and critical conversations with patients and their families around their goals of care.

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AACN-Gold Partnership

The Gold Foundation’s partnership with AACN began in 2013 with the expansion of the White Coat Ceremony, also known as the Nursing Oath Ceremony, into nursing schools. This iconic ritual emphasizes the importance of humanism in healthcare. In 2018, the Gold Foundation also opened its Dr. Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest to nursing students, awarding three nursing students and three medical students prizes, as well as publication in AACN’s Journal of Professional Nursing and the Association of American Medical College’s Academic Medicine journals.

“A strong partnership between physicians and nurses is essential for humanistic care that supports patients at the highest level. We are delighted to join with AACN to ensure that this important collaboration is recognized and celebrated – and serves as an example for medical and nursing students to emulate in their future careers,” said Kathleen Reeves, MD, President and CEO of the Gold Foundation.

The Gold Foundation is the leading national nonprofit organization championing humanism in healthcare. It does this by empowering experts, learners, and leaders to together create systems and cultures that are grounded in compassion, trust and respect.

The AACN is the national voice for academic nursing. It establishes quality standards for nursing education; assists schools in implementing those standards; influences the nursing profession to improve health care; and promotes public support for professional nursing education, research, and practice.

Honorees

The recipients of the 2025 AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, Stephen H. Berns, MD, and Kacey Boyle, MSPC, RN, CHPN, created TalkVermont to foster meaningful and critical conversations with patients and their families around their goals of care.

Read the announcement.

The recipients of the 2024 AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, Robert Pitts, MD and Charles Yee, BSN, AMB-BC, were selected as champions for compassionate care for the wide array of services provided to LGBTQIA+ patients through The Pride Health Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/ Bellevue.

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The recipients of the inaugural AACN-Gold Interprofessional Humanism in Healthcare Award, Susan Todd Peeler, MD, MBA, FACOG, and Patricia McMullen, PhD, JD, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, were recognized for their partnership in supporting comprehensive women’s healthcare and disseminating best practices on women’s health to clinicians across a wide range of disciplines.

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