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The achievements of 48 nurses, from which nine winners were selected, were honored and cheered by 270 attendees at NurseWeek’s fifth annual South Central Nursing Excellence Awards banquet Oct. 9 in Houston.

Moonlight wasn’t all that was shining on a “Starry, Starry Night” during NurseWeek’s fifth annual South Central Nursing Excellence Awards banquet Oct. 9 in Houston.

The stunning and inspiring achievements of 48 nurses, from which nine winners were selected among eight categories of service and achievement from the bedside to the boardroom, were honored and cheered by about 270 attendees at the event at the InterContinental Houston.

“Tonight’s all about joy,” said Beth Ulrich, RN, EdD, CHE, senior vice president of professional services for NurseWeek. “There are a lot of times in our profession where we deal with a lot of heartache and it’s easy to forget some of the joy we have in helping people.”

The finalists and winners not only provided a glimpse into why nurses delight in their peers’ accomplishments, but also gave an affirmation of nursing’s growing influence and diversity. Several nominees exhibited influential roles at their institution or their communities, and for the first time, three men were named winners among the nine winners in eight categories (two winners tied in the direct clinical care group).

Two of the men, Kim Tieu, RN, BSN, and Jackson Igbinoba, RN, BSN, BC, were foreign-born nurses who overcame geographical and financial hardships to establish careers in nursing.

Tieu was a Vietnamese refugee who learned two languages in three countries on his way to a career as an RN at Zale Lipshy University Hospital in Dallas. Igbinoba, a clinical nurse manager at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital in Houston, told the banquet crowd of nearly 300 that he benefited greatly from the hospital’s tuition reimbursement program — without which he might not have been able to pursue nursing as a career while raising four children with his wife.

Keynote speaker Susie Distefano, RN, MS, vice president of patient care services at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, noted that many of the winners succeeded not by carrying “big titles,” but by focusing on their capabilities and goals. She quoted philosopher Jon Kabat-Zinn (“Wherever you go, there you are.”) to point out that the winners captured the “joy and spirit of nursing.”

“They’ve decided not to focus on what could have been, what might be, but in fact taken what they’ve been given to work with,” Distefano said, “regardless of their role, regardless of their practice seeing and they enjoyed it … and I find that impressive.”

Advancing the Profession

Vickie Milazzo, RN, JD, BSN
CEO/Owner, Vickie Milazzo Institute, Houston

Giving thousands of nurses a new career option within their chosen field has been Milazzo’s chief accomplishment since founding the Vickie Milazzo Institute in Houston 22 years ago. Since 1982, more than 5,000 certified legal nurse consultants (CLNCs) have entered the field, providing assistance to law firms, hospitals, and health care organizations across the country. “What I think we’ve accomplished is to help many nurses who are looking for another career option,” Milazzo said. A career in legal nursing consulting “allows nurses to stay in the profession. Many have been in nursing for up to 30 years, and it would be tragic if they had to leave traditional nursing, and had no place to go.” Milazzo said the demand for CLNCs will continue to grow as facilities seek ways to improve patient care quality and prepare for ever-more-stringent standards from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The CEO and owner of the institute has continued her longtime role as a faculty member for her organization’s seminars, and appearing at the annual legal nurse seminars her company sponsors. At this year’s seminar, her group drew more than 900 attendees, and “we’ll exceed that number for [2005].”