Nursing educators earn international award for textbook

Sept. 19, 2025 — HOUSTON — Jayne Jennings Dunlap had high hopes for her recent book on  nursing practice, but she didn’t anticipate the impact it would have on the profession until it was recognized for an international award.

Jennings Dunlap, a doctor of nursing practice, co-wrote the textbook “Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice and Quality Improvement for Professional Nursing Practice: A Competency Based Approach,” with colleague Julee Briscoe Waldrop, and the pair have raked in awards ever since. 

After receiving two first place accolades for the 2024 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year, the latest is the Capstone International Nursing Book Award, a 2025 International Award for Nursing Excellence from the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, which is only awarded to one book every two years.

“We dreamed it would make a national impact, but I did not anticipate this global distinction,” Jennings Dunlap said. “This lesson supports that what we teach our pioneering students to do, we must also do ourselves: to boldly go to places we never dreamed were possible.”

The textbook is innovative in its approach to nurses, engaging readers with first-person language on new methods, tools and resources, Dunlap said. It teaches nursing students how to use evidence to promote sustainable practice improvements in a practical matter.

With so much success for their undergraduate textbook, Jennings Dunlap and Briscoe Waldrop have also released a graduate textbook on similar content.

Page last updated 3:50 PM, September 19, 2025