UNF Nursing Professor Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Joanna Norris, Associate Director 

Department of Public Relations 

(904) 620-2102 

Dr. Patrick Monaghan, a professor in the University of North Florida’s School of Nursing, has been selected to receive the U.S. Department of Defense, Armed Services Blood Program Lifetime Achievement Award. 

 Monaghan, a Yulee resident, was presented the award by the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker Oct. 9 in Baltimore, Md., during the 2010 annual meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks and Cellular Therapy and Transfusion Medicine Expo. 

The purpose of the award is to recognize a member of the military blood-banking community who has made exceptional contributions to the Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) over a comprehensive period of time. The award criteria include being retired from active military duty and a minimum of 20 years making significant contributions that have had a transformative impact on the ASBP. 

“We are so fortunate to have Dr Monaghan as a faculty member,” said Dr. Li Loriz, director of UNF’s School of Nursing. “This very prestigious recognition by his peers is a testament to the value he brings to UNF and our students, in addition to the impact he has made to the health care of our military.” 

 Monaghan, a UNF professor since 2006, teaches in the Anesthesiology Nursing Program in the Brooks College of Health and is also a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, College of Medicine, University of Florida Health Science Center at Shands Jacksonville. He previously served as the assistant dean for Graduate and Continuing Education at the F. Edward Herbert School of Medicine and as a tenured full professor at the Graduate School of Nursing, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.  

He had a 27-year career in the U.S. Navy and for 18 years, he served as a Commissioned Officer Ensign through Commander in the Medical Services Corps. In the early 70s, Monaghan was selected from the U.S. Navy to receive specialty training in the Triservice Blood Bank Fellowship Program and was later chosen to attend post graduate school and successfully earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in Immunohematology.  

 Upon completion of his doctoral studies, Monaghan was assigned to the National Naval Medical Center, where he served for nine years as the director of the Blood Bank and Transfusion Service and managed a comprehensive department with a large blood donor center, blood components section, patient compatibility assessment unit and special procedure section to identify antibodies and perform workups for hemolytic and other myeloproliferative diseases. Additionally, he performed clinical research projects and was extensively involved in education and training duties.  

 His seminal research involved methodologies to significantly reduce the time to perform compatibility assessments between patients and donors, using reagents which provided a greater specificity and sensitivity. The successful results of these studies reduced the average cross-match time from an average of more than 1 hour to less than 20 minutes. Additional research involved improving blood storage and transport used to support large numbers of casualties. Many of these procedures are still in use today to treat combat injured personnel. Monaghan also established the first military apheresis centers and was instrumental in defining procedures to not only collect large volumes of blood components from donors but also in using these new procedures for protocols to actually treat numerous patients stricken with a variety of blood disorders. 

 Monaghan presently serves on the board of directors for the Biomedical Research Institute and the Association of Entrepreneurial Sciences. He served six years on the American Association of Blood Banks, Inspection, Education and Accreditation committees and was also an active member of the National Blood Policy organization, which was tasked with improving the provision and quality of blood products on a national basis. 

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