John A. Fraleigh Receives Outpatient/Community and Public Health Award

The University of Arizona College of Nursing’s John A. Fraleigh, MSN, CFRN, was honored with the Outpatient/Community and Public Health award for 2021 by the March of Dimes Arizona during their Heroes in Action awards ceremony. Fraleigh has been a lecturer in the college for five years.

The award honors registered nurses who work in community health, behavioral health, clinics, hospice, home-health and palliative care, public health, K-12 schools or universities, outpatient diagnostics, parish or prison nurses, and private practice nurses of any specialty.

Image

“It was an honor to receive the March of Dimes Heroes in Action for Outpatient/Community & Public Health award. I think lots of nurses are ‘out there’ doing great things, but it feels awesome when someone stops to recognize my efforts,” said Fraleigh. “It is important for people who do volunteer work to give credit to the people behind them making it possible for them to give their time – and for me, I have to give a shout-out to my wife, who makes it possible for me to do this.”

Fraleigh volunteers with several community health organizations, bringing those experiences into the classroom, as well as taking his nursing students into the community to see firsthand how underserved populations are disadvantaged regarding follow-up services and adhering to plans of care.

“I always tell my students that we all have choices to make in life, but we don’t all have the same options. The environment you are in dictates the possible options. If we work with marginalized communities, we can hopefully break down some of the barriers in order to give them more options,” explained Fraleigh.

He is on the board of the Mayor’s Human Trafficking Task Force, where he serves as a liaison for the health care community. He volunteers with Street Medicine Phoenix, providing health screenings and resources to people experiencing homelessness, and he is a member of the Arizona Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Coalition, where he meets with high school students to discuss the victimization of underserved populations. He also serves on three teams (suicides, homicides and accidents) with the Maricopa County Child Fatality Review Board.

“While I appreciate the comparison to being a ‘hero,’ I am merely a representative of the team that assists,” Fraleigh said. “Opportunities to attend meetings, conferences and educational events are only possible because coworkers remain behind to fill the gaps. It is important for us to be out in the community doing things to help prevent the types of things that send people to the hospital.”

Fraleigh earned his MSN from the University of Arizona in 2018 and his BSN from Saint Louis University in 1997. He has been a practicing nurse for 24 years.