“I am a nurse through and through,” said Kathleen McCoy, the 2023 recipient of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) Award for Excellence in Leadership-APRN. 

McCoy is a Warren County resident and an advanced practice registered nurse who was recently recognized nationally for her work. The APNA gives the Award for Excellence in Leadership to an APNA member who has distinguished themselves as an accomplished nursing leader. McCoy was nominated by her former student, Christine Brigette Costa, and fulfilled the requirements for the leadership category.

“One of my former students who I have worked with and mentored after she graduated who happens to have a PHD in nursing nominated me and has worked with me for all these years and knows the things I have done. She put it to paper and apparently I ticked all the boxes according to the rubric for leadership,” said McCoy. 

McCoy described this honor as a lifetime achievement award. She believes she received this award because people noticed all of her work over several decades. 

“People know me, and they know the work I have done. Across time, I have done some really interesting things,” said McCoy. “Because I really care about people, I guess it comes across. I am just there for the APNA organization, I am there for my patients and it has been noticed.” 

McCoy has had a lengthy and interesting career. Her nursing journey starts with her family. She comes from a family of nurses. McCoy says her parents decided the girls in the family were going to be nurses. Her mother was a nurse, her sister is a nurse and other relatives are also nurses. “It’s contagious,” she joked. 

She decided to pursue additional education after working as a staff nurse for 20 years. Within two years, McCoy received a Master’s degree from SUNY Stonybrook and began a career as a psychiatric-mental health advanced practice nurse (PMH-APRN) as a clinical nurse specialist. McCoy had an interest in trauma and PTSD after working at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center as a graduate student nurse intern during the Gulf War. This experience caused trauma-based care to be crucial and central to her career. 

McCoy then helped educate professionals she encountered on psychiatric mental health and the importance of it. McCoy served as the first PMH-APRN at the Tennessee Department of Mental Health who was invited to assume the role of “medical staff.” 

She later opened her own private practice and attained additional degrees and certifications - Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Family Nurse Practitioner - during her doctoral degree, Doctor of Nursing Science (DNSc) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. During this time, she was recognized at a state level as APNA Tennessee State Leader-APN.  

“When you work really hard, you can’t hide your success,” said McCoy. “I guess mine was noticed. Across time there have just been so many things that I have done that has added up. For instance, I won this award on the state level about 20 years ago when I was a student working on my doctorate at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. That was just for the state. That was big. It was a big award and it made my day and made my year. I didn’t even think about a national award, but someone did.”

She began her academic career in 2007 when she took a faculty position at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. In this position, McCoy was able to mentor and educate psychiatric mental health nurses all across the nation. 

At Brandman University in Irvine California, as the founding psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) program chair/director, McCoy created the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program and Post-Doctoral Programs. At this time, McCoy published numerous works including one of the first articles advocating for teaching psychotherapy to PMHNP students. 

McCoy later served as an associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. Here she helped create and build the PMHNP workforce in Corpus Christi. She also began expanding her skills in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy with the Beck Institute and the Department of Defense. 

She continues to demonstrate leadership in healthcare as an associate professor in the Community Mental Health Department of the University of South Alabama, Mobile, College of Nursing. McCoy has also served over five years as chair for the American Nursing Credentialing Center PMHNP Content Expert Panel certification examination, here she led substantial positive changes to that exam. 

McCoy works to advance accurate Advance Practice Nurse reimbursement, serving on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 Neuropsychiatric Subcommittee Wave 2-5, AANP/NP to further clarify reimbursement policies for NPs on topics including Major Depression, Schizophrenia and Cerebrovascular Accidents. McCoy currently represents the NP profession in development of the American Adult ADHD Guidelines.  

She serves on the APNA DEI Advisory Committee and most recently, she has served in an innovative practice at a federally qualified refugee centered medical home providing telehealth to patients who mostly do not speak English. She is a Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Despite having her path chosen for her by her parents, McCoy says she has found where she belongs in nursing. 

“I am a nurse through and through. My sister and I found the place in nursing where we belong and fit where it is comfortable and we move, shake and do what needs to be done to help people and populations, making a difference in health and wellness. It is a gift to serve in the capacity of the professional nurse,"said McCoy. 

McCoy is a devoted wife, mother and grandmother of nine, thrives in Tennessee where the people are warm and loving and, together, all live in this gorgeous outdoor paradise called the Upper Cumberland highlands.