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Grand prize winner Marilyn Sims-Jones, RN (center), is joined by (from left) Idelsys Roque-Martinez, nurse recruiter, South Miami Hospital; Patti Rager, RN, president/publisher, Nursing Spectrum and NurseWeek; Daniela Amoroso, World Health; and Isabel Touchette, nurse recruiter, Baptist Hospital of Miami. South Miami and Baptist are part of Baptist Health South Florida.

Marilyn Sims-Jones, RN, didn’t believe it when her name appeared on the Nursing Spectrum website as the grand prize winner of the Summer $20,000 Cash Giveaway.

The 14-year nursing veteran stared at the computer screen for 10 minutes before calling over her husband, David Jones, to confirm what she saw.

Sure enough, Sims-Jones, who was among the nearly 22,000 nurses nationwide to register for the contest, had won the $10,000 grand prize.

Sponsored by Nursing Spectrum, NurseWeek, and World Health, a health care personnel and staffing company, the contest boasted the biggest nurse turnout ever, with 15 nurses emerging as cash winners. There was a $500 winner each week of the 13-week contest, as well as a runner-up — Melissa Moffatt, RN, a Pennsylvania nurse who won $3,500.

The money couldn’t have come at a better time for Sims-Jones, who has five children ranging in age from 1 to 22 years. Her eldest, Jason, is pursuing a BSN.

Sims-Jones works the weekend night shift in the ED at Homestead Hospital, Homestead, Fla., which is part of Baptist Health South Florida. She’s working toward a BSN, then an MSN, at Florida International University in Miami.

She also works three days a week as a school nurse at Perrine Baptist Academy, an elementary school in Palmetto Bay that three of her daughters attend. Ironically, she says, “Monday is my only real day off.”

Sims-Jones started her nursing career in med/surg and later worked in dialysis because her father was a
dialysis patient. “I wanted to know how to take care of him,” she says.

She later worked in critical care, but felt overwhelmed when her mother became a critical care patient in need of a liver transplant. That experience prompted her to leave bedside nursing for a while to teach health science to high school students. But she realized how much she missed nursing when a young man on campus who had cardiomyopathy went into cardiac arrest.

“I was there, and I helped the EMTs with him,” Sims-Jones says. “After that, I thought, ‘I have to go back into nursing. This is my calling.’”

She says the ED environment lets her use all her skills, including critical thinking.

“When I got [to the ED], I made the decision that I wanted to be a practitioner,” Sims-Jones says. “I’m back in school to earn a BSN and then an MSN, to possibly come back to Homestead to practice [as a nurse practitioner], where the need is great.”

Sims-Jones, who lives in Richmond Heights, says the $10,000 grand prize will go toward starting savings accounts for her children, as well as buying a badly needed second car; 10% is earmarked for the church.

Nursing Spectrum and NurseWeek are committed to securing sponsors for these giveaways each year, according to Rodrick Rogers, NurseWeek sales manager in Northern California. “We want to recognize and honor our nurses with a thank-you for the great job that they do throughout the year,” he says.

Stay tuned for future Nursing Spectrum and NurseWeek cash giveaways by logging on to www.nursingspectrum.com or www.nurseweek.com.

Lisette Hilton is a health care freelance writer.