Loyola Nursing senior receives state honor

Marty McNaughton, a Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing senior who founded a group that promotes health literacy, has been named the American Nurses Association-Illinois’ 2024 Student Nurse of the Year. 

The award recognizes “an outstanding student nurse who exemplifies compassion, exceptional promise in clinical expertise, and academic achievement—the underpinnings of nursing excellence,” according to the ANA-Illinois. The organization cited his leadership in launching Students for Health Literacy, which hosts on- and off-campus events to increase health knowledge among Loyola University Chicago students, and his membership in Loyola Nursing’s Acute Care Nursing Scholars (ACNS) program.  

ACNS educates undergraduates to recognize and respond in acute care settings to the social determinants of health that impact wellbeing, and to provide high-quality care in underserved areas.  

“(Marty) is passionate about ensuring that patients and providers are aware of and can utilize the best strategies to provide for excellence in patient care,” said Associate Professor Ann Solari-Twadell, one of two Loyola Nursing faculty who nominated him for the award.  

McNaughton, who works part-time at Loyola University Medical Center’s critical care unit, was recently inducted into the Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and is consistently on the Dean’s List.  

Clinical Assistant Professor Margaret Delaney, who also nominated McNaughton, described him as a “team player” who excelled as an ACNS mentor during a summer program for area high school students interested in becoming nurses. During the three-day event, held at Lake Shore Campus for participants from schools in underserved communities, he assisted faculty in teaching and answered the high schoolers’ questions about studying to become a nurse.  

McNaughton will be the student leader for the School of Nursing’s 2025 service immersion trip to Lourdes, France. Students taking part in the annual trip assist pilgrims seeking healing at a major Catholic shrine; the experience is designed to teach students how to provide spiritual care to patients.  

McNaughton described helping an elderly couple at Lourdes in a recent article for Loyola Magazine, and said the trip helped him learn to be more comfortable dealing with patients’ emotions.  

“This experience has given me more confidence in sitting with people in their grief, because that’s what we’re doing—just taking a moment to be present with people in a way that health care doesn’t usually allow for, and I’ll definitely carry that into my practice,” he said. 

McNaughton will accept the award, which includes a $1,000 stipend, at a conference in November.