04/30/2025

ACHNE Member Spotlight: Joanne Langan, PhD, RN, CNE

Dr. Joanne Langan is Professor Emerita at Saint Louis University, the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing. She received her BS in Education from Quincy University, then found Nursing and received her BSN from the University of Southern Mississippi. She also received her MSN and PhD from George Mason University, both in Nursing Administration.

Joanne joined ACHNE in 2015 after being invited by a current member who had read one of her books about disaster preparedness. She was still heavily researching disaster preparedness and joined to share lessons learned and learn from others. As part of ACHNE, Joanne has participated in the policy committee and served on the task force about faculty qualifications for teaching community/public health nursing.

Joanne is passionate about disaster preparedness—teaching students, nurses, advanced practice nurses, and community members about disaster response and recovery. She is proud to have written two disaster preparedness textbooks and to have been asked to speak locally, nationally, and internationally about this topic. Recently, she spoke with nurses in Thailand. That seminar invitation came immediately after the recent earthquake, her presentation was opened to the public in light of the devastating disaster.

Joanne received an ACHNE research grant with Dr. Karen Moore. Together, they developed online (and free!) modules connected to the ICN disaster nursing competencies. The modules are user-friendly, do not take a lot of time, and allow nurses to examine what the new generalized nurse should know, as well as what the advanced practice nurse should be prepared to do, such as serve in leadership roles. From this grant, they researched strategies for success in teaching disaster nursing competencies, finding that faculty were not comfortable teaching this topic because they thought they did not know the competencies. Joanne focuses on building confidence in faculty for teaching about disaster preparedness, in addition to her work educating nurses in practice.

Joanne’s current research focuses on disaster survivors, conducting interviews and focus groups. She finds this work rewarding and enlightening. While interviewing survivors after Hurricane Katrina, older adults revealed their difficulty in evacuating cities. While all highway lanes were outward-bound, the traffic was still bumper to bumper and very slow. Older adults found it difficult because there were few to no toilets along the way, and no way to predict how long it would take to get to the next one. She was able to share these findings with city planners and other officials for future planning purposes. Joanne has also interviewed nurse executives in hospitals about their recommendations for mass casualty events and how they handle staging, triage, staffing, and supplies.

Joanne would like all ACHNE members to become aware of what disasters are most likely to occur in their area of the world and be prepared, personally and professionally, to respond to disaster situations. Personal preparedness applies to a variety of situations, such as looking for alternative exits when in a crowded facility in the event the facility must be evacuated. She also encourages us to continue to teach fellow nurses, our students, and the community about preparedness, response, and recovery.

In addition, Joanne encourages experienced nurses to mentor the next generation of community health nurse educators, because they have so much to share by offering self, answering questions, and just being available. Continuing to share expertise is important even after retirement from the faculty role.

Finally, Joanne reminds us that we can offer our services as volunteers with the Red Cross, Medical Reserve Corps, or Disaster Medical Assistance Teams in our area.

Joanne is grateful to ACHNE for the grant money, but in ACHNE, she has found an awesome group of people interested in population health and education, and she admires those serving in leadership positions.