Sharon Y. Irving, assistant professor in the department of family and community health in Penn’s School of Nursing, has been awarded a Distinguished Nutrition Support Nurse Service Award from the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN).

This award is given to the nurse member who has made exceptional leadership and practice contributions that have furthered the vision and mission of the society over a sustained period of time. Recently, Dr. Irving served as lead author on the first set of recommendations on feeding tube location verification in pediatric patients and also was a co-author of new guidelines for nutrition therapy in critically ill children. Both guidelines are endorsed by ASPEN’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Irving practices as a pediatric nurse practitioner at CHOP, where she provides patient care in the pediatric intensive care and pediatric progressive care units. She co-founded and led a multi-disciplinary ICU-Pediatric Nutrition Team (ICU-PNuT) in designing and implementing the first nutrition pathway to improve nutrition delivery to infants and children during and immediately following critical illness. The pathway includes ensuring timely initiation of nutrient provision to attain appropriate caloric and protein intake, using the most appropriate mode for delivering nutrients: the gastrointestinal tract or intravenous. The ICU-PNuT includes physicians, registered dieticians, advance practice and clinical nurses and a clinical pharmacist.