Glod was lauded for her many contributions to psychiatric nursing through her practice, education, research, and administration, according to a released statement.
“It’s very much an honor and privilege, and I was quite surprised to be honored by my peers in this way,” Glod said. “It really is quite an outstanding achievement” to be recognized.
The award recognized Glod’s work, but she credited the mentors she had throughout her career, including many of her patients who suffered mental disorders and her students who taught her lessons.
During the conference at which Glod received the award she met with colleagues whom she hadn’t seen in years, but who recalled her help along the way or professional comments.
“And there were former students who are now professors and came full circle to work in the field,” she said.
Glod, Merrimack’s provost since June 2014, has always seen herself as an academic clinical researcher, but her role has evolved into a senior administrator. She started her nursing career at McLean Hospital and still holds a Harvard Medical School appointment.
“I think a piece of being honored by this award is that there is still a lack of understanding or misunderstanding about psychiatric disorders,” Glod said. “So I continue to devote myself to reducing the stigma associated with psychiatric disorders and promote better understanding.”
Her work evolved over time, learning to understand psychiatric biology, including biology and genetics, in treating patients, and psychiatric pharmacology.
She focused on “children and adolescents because part of what I recognized in treating adults is that a lot of them have symptoms in childhood and are not diagnosed or misdiagnosed,” Glod said.
Children can often be labeled lazy, moody or difficult when they really have serious psychiatric disorders — especially adolescents whose behaviors and moods can be dismissed when they are really suffering mood disorders.
“They suffer if they go undiagnosed and treated,” Glod said. “At some point I shifted my career to looking at children and adolescents and other stressors, not just the underlying illness — severe trauma in childhood, such as physical and sexual abuse, and how that affects behavior such as mood and sleep and overall functioning.”
It’s just the second time the Living Legend Award has been presented, said Dr. Margaret Knight, member-at-large of the New England chapter of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. The inaugural award was given in 2013 to Dr. Ann Burgess, considered a pioneer in assessing and treating victims of trauma and abuse.
The award pays tribute “to nurses who have contributed significantly to knowledge development, service; and to pay tribute to their careers,” Knight said.
The chapter’s board of directors nominates and votes on the award recipients, Knight said.
Glod is a renowned researcher who contributed significantly to her field through interprofessional research, as well as independent research, Knight said.
