Star Power
Nursing Excellence Awards celebrate profession's finest
By
Michelle Paolucci, profiles by Betsy Bannerman
November 15, 2004
California nursing’s brightest stars were celebrated during the fifth annual Nursing Excellence Awards gala dinner Nov. 5 at the Fairmont San Jose.About 350 attendees gathered to honor the accomplishments of 48 nurses, from which one winner was selected from each of eight categories: Advancing the Profession, Clinical Care, Community Service, Innovation/Creativity, Leadership, Mentoring, Patient Advocacy, and Teaching.
The finalists were a diverse group representing the array of opportunities that nursing offers. They work in a variety of settings, from hospitals at the bedside to rural outpatient clinics to nurse-created and nurse-run companies; there was no shortage of nursing pride at the “Starry, Starry Night”-themed awards dinner.
“Save one life and you are a hero, save one hundred lives and you are a nurse,” said Beth Ulrich, RN, EdD, senior vice president of professional services for NurseWeek/Nursing Spectrum for the South Central region. Ulrich, who was quoting “one of our colleagues at the Nebraska Nursing Association,” commented on the sentiment: “And we believe that, and that is what we are celebrating here.”
The Regency Ballroom, with tables regaled in golden, blinking stars and white-and-gold floral centerpieces positioned against dark royal blue tablecloths, set the elegant tone of the evening. “There are a lot of stars here tonight and we are going to celebrate them all,” Ulrich said, introducing Pat McFarland as the evening’s keynote speaker.
McFarland, executive director for the Association of California Nurse Leaders and the executive officer for the California Nursing Students’ Association, spoke about nursing and what she called “the ultimate nursing journey.” She invited the nurses in the audience to “use your voice” and spread a positive message about nursing.
Later in the evening, McFarland was named the winner of the Diane F. Cooper Lifetime Achievement Award, a prestigious award that has been given to only two other recipients in the event’s five-year history. As the Lifetime Acheivement Award recipient, McFarland received a recognition plaque and a $2500 check to be donated in her name to the nursing organization of her choice. Sutter Health and Memorial Medical Center of Modesto sponsored the award.
After the keynote address, finalists were invited to the stage by category, as Judee Berg, RN, MS, vice president of professional services for NurseWeek/Nursing Spectrum for the California region, serving as the event’s emcee, read each and every individual, inspiring, courageous story of nursing practice. Winners were announced by category at the end of the evening. Each winner’s nominator’s comments were read and each winner was given the opportunity to say a few words about their award.
For Advancing the Profession, Linda Kresge said upon acceptance of her award, “I want to thank the folks who were involved in nominating me.” She acknowledged her hospital team and leadership team. Kresge noted how much she “thoroughly enjoys being the chief nurse executive at Sequoia Hospital.”
Clinical Care winner Doug Elmore, who has been honored for injuries sustained as an Army Nurse Corps reservist, accepted his award graciously. “This is kind of tough, this is kind of heavy,” he said. “First, I’d like to thank God for making things possible, my family, my wife, Kim, who is here with me. I have to say that combat deployment would not be possible if it were not for supportive families,” he said.
Mary Massey, the winner in the Community Service category who was honored for her work in disaster preparedness, said upon acceptance of her award, “When I went into nursing, I didn’t think they were going to teach me how to make bombs. I’ve gotten pretty good at that,” she said. Massey asked the audience, “Aren’t you proud to be a nurse tonight?” She thanked her “hospital family” and her personal family for all of their support.
Palliative care innovator Jay Westbrook, said when he accepted his award in the Innovation/Creativity category, “I am so proud to be a nurse, so humbled, and almost speechless, but not quite.” Living up to that sentiment, he went on to thank many, including “a loving God and my wife.” He thanked LAC+USC Medical Center, School of Nursing, who he said “gave me my foundation.” He thanked Valley Presbyterian Hospital “for being a pioneer in having Southern California’s first palliative care and bereavement center in an acute care hospital.” With emotion in his voice he also thanked the dying and the grieving families “who have allowed me to be of service … and just learn that the place where life and death meet is filled with God.”
Leadership winner Ann Dechairo-Marino said, “I have a passion for nursing and a passion for nursing leadership.” She thanked her husband, “who has supported me through my PhD program and through all the things that I do.” She also thanked her hospital team. “The only reason I am standing here is because of the words that they wrote to honor me. I really appreciate that,” she said. In a closing comment, Dechairo-Marino mentioned how her mother opened a hospice 27 years ago. “I really believe that the essence of nursing is caring and I think that’s why I used Jean Watson’s theory of caring in my research. Thank you very much, this is such an honor,” she said.
Mentoring winner Susan Revero thanked Little Company of Mary, the organization which, she says, is a privilege to work for and “that is passionate about making a difference.”
Thalassemia researcher and nurse practitioner Susan Carson, winner for Patient Advocacy, first thanked her mother who had come all the way from Toronto to attend the awards. She also thanked her “Southern California family.” Carson said she was “blown away” by the level of nominees and finalists she shared the stage with that night. Carson, who works with children, also said, “You know what, I always joke that what I do is really for the children and it really is. I am so proud to be a nurse.”
Elizabeth Martin, winner in the Teaching category, said she was “frankly stunned and deeply humbled to be in this kind of company this evening.” She thanked all of her colleagues at Kaiser and teachers who had taught her critical thinking. “I take this award as a challenge to continue my education and continue my dream,” she said.
Advancing the Profession
Linda Kresge, RN, MPA, BSN
Chief Nurse Executive, Sequoia Hospital,
Catholic Healthcare West, Redwood City
Linda Kresge said she “likes the way nursing incorporates science and art, human dynamics and technology, teaching and direct application of teaching. I like the diversity of the [nursing] roles and the diversity of the people.” She is responsible for starting a BSN program with 30 students in a unique partnership with a community college (Cañada College), a university (San Francisco State University), the community of the Sequoia health care district, and Sequoia Hospital — “a true partnership,” she said, “between clinicians and faculty.”
Highly respected among all members of the Sequoia health care team, Kresge “supports individuals with advice, counsel, good humor, and strong intellect,” according to one of her nurses. Her leadership has resulted in strong nurse recruitment and retention numbers and excellent nursing ratios. She has arranged for RNs at Sequoia to attain a BSN via the Holy Names televideo program, and brought a $1 million grant for nurse mentorships to Catholic Healthcare West. She is a board member of the Coalition for Nursing Careers in California. The leader of CHW’s CNE Council, she eventually would like to start a mentorship program for chief nurse executives.
Joanne Jeffords, her nominator, said that Kresge “exemplifies the professionalism of nursing … Don’t take our word. Talk to almost anyone in the Bay Area!”
Clinical Care
Doug Elmore, RRT, RN, CCRN
Staff Clinical Nurse 3, ICU,
Scripps Memorial Hospital, Encinitas;
U.S. Army Reserve, Oakland
Doug Elmore says when he was wounded in Afghanistan as an Army Reserve Nurse Corps officer, he had “the best seat in the house to observe the quality of care that EMTs, LVNs, and RNs gave me. All of their teaching and shared experience paid off.”
Elmore knows about excellent medical care. He began his own health care career as a registered respiratory therapist at UC San Diego Medical Center, focusing primarily on infants and children. Deciding to become a nurse — “I knew I wanted to offer more to patients” — he graduated in 1994, remaining with UCSD, and transferring to the adult surgical trauma ICU there. He gained experience in all areas of critical care nursing, including resuscitation, intubation, and organ transplants. He also participated in research and training of medical personnel.
Deployed to Afghanistan in 2002, he received many medals, including the Purple Heart, becoming the first nurse since the Vietnam War era to win this honor. He said laughingly that this may be why he became “the sentimental favorite” to win a Nursing Excellence Award.
He has since been “demobilized” to civilian status following seven months of rehab and physical therapy. He continues to lecture, train, and provide expert patient care. He is hoping to gain acceptance into a nurse practitioner program next year and to being the best husband, father, and nurse I can be.”
Community Service
Mary Massey, RN, BSN
Paramedic/Disaster Coordinator,
Anaheim Memorial Medical Center, Anaheim
“I have always wanted to be a nurse,” Mary Massey said. “Lego hospitals with Barbies and G.I. Joes were a normal part of our household growing up.” After spending most of her nursing career in the ED, Massey “stumbled” into her current passion when she was asked in 1996 to help her hospital develop a disaster preparedness program for the community. “The logistics alone were a massive challenge,” she said. Training first responders, transporting the injured, stockpiling drugs and supplies, and dealing with decontamination and prophylaxis.
As a result of her innovative and cost-effective ideas, Anaheim Memorial has become one of the best-prepared hospitals in Southern California. And the procedures and policies Massey helped develop have, since Sept. 11, been copied all over the United States. “We haven’t come up with any rocket science,” she said, “just things that haven’t been tried or thought of before … [Our ideas] are very adaptable to many scenarios and many facilities.”
She has continued to expand and update the program to ensure an appropriate response to any disaster — man-made or natural. True to her profession, Massey believes that every phase of emergency preparedness — “prevention, mitigation, recovery” — can be advanced with nursing practice. She is one of the only RNs going for a master’s in homeland security at the Naval Postgraduate School. And, said her nominator Angeli Leggitt, “A position in this program is by invitation only.”
Innovation/Creativity
Jay Westbrook, RN, MS, CHPN
Clinical Director, Palliative Care
and Bereavement Service,
Valley Presbyterian Hospital, Van Nuys
Jay Westbrook claims he didn’t really choose nursing, it chose him. Working as a clinical gerontologist, he “kept coming upon situations where the knowledge and credential of an RN” would have helped. He cofounded the Palliative Care and Bereavement program at Valley Presbyterian in 2002, when such services were practically nonexistent in California.
“I get to help ensure quality of life at the end of life,” he said, “to help dying patients have a gentler and more tender death, and to empower grieving families to participate in the care of their family member and to complete their relationship with them.” He said all his patient care ideas are innovative because they vary with each situation. His team uses pain management, role modeling of healing behavior, Tibetan breathing techniques, humor, and something called “the braille system of feeling our way along with a patient and family” to explore their options. He conducts support groups, lectures, and workshops locally and countrywide on end-of-life care and grief recovery.
Westbrook also is developing his own company, Compassionate Journey: An End-of-Life Education and Consulting Service. When asked why he won this award, he said, “I do not know … I have learned over the years to stay in action and out of the results. My job is to show up and be of service and not worry about whether the world is watching, much less applauding.”
Leadership
Ann Dechairo-Marino, RN, PhD, MS, BSN, CNAA
Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services,
and Chief Nurse Executive,
Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Northridge
The daughter of a surgeon and a nurse, Ann Dechairo-Marino began college as a language major. Her communication skills have served her well ever since. “I truly understand that the ability to work with people and develop relationships is the most important aspect of being a leader,” she said. “I have learned so much from those around me and believe it takes a team to make any idea better.”
Her CEO said, “She has charisma and an ability to articulate and advocate issues well. … She builds trust with all groups.” Dechairo-Marino has been at Northridge only two years but already has increased patient satisfaction, and she daily “walks and talks” her vision of improved patient care. She has inspired collaboration between nurses and physicians. She implemented the monthly Daisy award at her hospital which recognizes nurse excellence, has boosted nurse recruitment and retention, and challenges nurses to pursue additional education.
Her own seven-year journey to get her PhD made her both more knowledgeable and more humble: “The more I learned, the more I realized what I didn’t know.” Nonetheless, her doctoral chair said her dissertation on case management was the best she had heard in 20 years.
Dechairo-Marino has several future professional goals she is working on, but also emphasizes “spending more quality time with my family.”
Mentoring
Susan Revero, RN, CCRN, BSN
Clinical Educator/New Grad/Specialty Intern Coordinator,
Little Company of Mary Hospital, Torrance
When she was little, Susan Revero wanted to be a nurse so she could make people “feel better.” Now, she realizes nursing is “so much more than ‘taking care of’ — it involves the person as a whole, meeting their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.” She developed the new grad/specialty intern mentoring program at her hospital in 1999 and has since “touched the lives” of more than 300 RNs.” Seeing these nurses blossom into confident, competent registered nurses is an incredible feeling,” Revero said, “knowing they will be making a difference in all the lives they touch.”
Specialty programs are in place for ICU, telemetry, medical/surgical, labor and delivery, postpartum, pediatrics, NICU, ED, OR, and psychiatry, and the annual retention rate for these RNs is an incredible 93%.
Revero meets weekly with her charges, holds social events at her home for them, makes rounds on both shifts to check on them, and is always available by beeper. She advocates on their behalf and makes sure they “fit” in their chosen area of practice. With her multicolored pens and CareMap to keep everyone on track, she is described by her nominators as attentive, friendly, soothing, caring, motivating, knowledgeable, honest, nonjudgmental, and a terrific listener. “She has done a great job in getting the program up and running at Little Company of Mary,” a preceptor said, “and it is appreciated by the staff in general.”
Patient Advocacy
Susan Carson, RN, MSN, CPNP
Nurse Practitioner, Care Manager,
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
Susan Carson said she chose nursing because “unlike medicine, I would be working more closely with the whole patient and family, not just focusing on one aspect of their disease.” Her fellow NPs, Debbie Harris (last year’s Patient Advocacy winner) and Trish Peterson, said of her, “She has done an extraordinary job advocating for her [thalassemia] patients at her hospital, in her state, and nationally.”
Some examples of this include: developing the Southern California Thalassemia Management Guide-lines to help providers give better care to their patients, starting the Thalassemia Nurses Network to share information with other institutions, and attending and speaking at conferences worldwide. She is working on an educational pamphlet that will include the drawings she does when she is teaching families about thalassemia.
Carson is also involved in research, such as assessing the benefits of using MRIs to monitor iron overload instead of painful liver biopsies. Carson’s job satisfaction comes primarily from working with her patients over such a long period of time.
“I love the fact … that I get to know them and their families so well; [I love] the trust we build up. I love it when I see them taking over for themselves and becoming their own advocates. And I love the fact that I get to learn something new every day, not just from my colleagues but from my patients as well.”
Teaching
Elizabeth Martin, RN, CPON,
Charge Nurse, Staff Nurse 3,
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center
Elizabeth Martin credits her mother, an RN, with teaching her that “nursing requires you to bring everything to the experience — hands, head, and heart.” Acting as the day shift charge nurse on a busy pediatric acute care unit, Martin “loves to teach,” said her nominator, Swanthi Samarak-kody. “Her vision … is to create an environment where we … teach each other what each of us knows best and support and care for each other’s well-being.” Martin said, “Working closely with other disciplines — child life, social work, physicians — has made me a better nurse.”
Martin is developing an educational program about palliative and end-of-life care; she is an editor for the hospital newsletter, Pediatric News You Can Use, and regularly conducts classes for new hires and current staff.
“The children and their families are amazing,” Martin said. “Their courage in the face of adversity and their trust in our care inspires me daily.” She is energized by the diversity of caring for newborns to adolescents. She respects the religious, cultural, and socioeconomic needs of patients and makes sure her staff knows each child’s medical history, plan of care, and special needs.
Samarakkody called Martin “a major strength to our unit” as it undergoes some big changes. Martin is thankful that “everybody has the obligation and opportunity to teach and learn in equal amounts.”
Pat McFarland, RN, MS
30-year nursing veteran — and night’s keynote speaker —
earns lifetime achievement award
The Diane F. Cooper Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Pat McFarland, RN, MS, a nationally recognized nurse leader and speaker, at NurseWeek’s fifth annual Nursing Excellence gala dinner Nov. 5. It is awarded to nurses who have contributed to nurses and nursing throughout their career.
Named in honor of Diane Cooper, who died in 1995 and who was the twin sister of Dennis Riordan, founder of NurseWeek, the award has been presented only three times in its five-year history. Before her untimely death, Cooper was the undergraduate dean of admissions at UCLA School of Nursing. She is said to have been the driving force in the creation of NurseWeek.
When called to the stage to accept the award, McFarland said, “I don’t even know what to say except thank you.” She thanked her father who passed away this summer. “He always wanted me to be a nurse; it was he that set my journey, and he’d be so proud. Thank you,” she said.
When interviewed after the event, McFarland elaborated on the inspiring role that her father played in her nursing journey. He had been a medic during World War II and “held nurses in the highest regard.” She said that both of her parents made sure she attained her goal of becoming a nurse.
At 10 years old, McFarland experienced nursing on a personal level when she entered the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. She remembers being thrilled to meet the “nurses with different colored uniforms and different initials on their hats.” This early encounter with nurses also put her on the path of nursing.
Originally intending to be a pediatric ICU nurse, she said, “Every time one of these beautiful little people died, a part of me died. I knew I did not have what it took.”
In graduate school, she began studying the special needs of elderly patients. With a grandmother who lived to 102 and a dad who was “the youngest 87-year-old I have ever met,” McFarland said she has had great role models to help her understand the aging process.
She has held both clinical and administrative nursing jobs, written articles, given speeches, and testified frequently before policy-making bodies on nursing issues.
As Judee Berg, vice president of professional services for NurseWeek/ Nursing Spectrum, California, said at the awards dinner, “Her professional network is huge and she is usually able to produce profound outcomes with a simple phone call or message to the right person.”
A 30-year veteran of nursing, McFarland is the executive director of the Association of California Nurse Leaders and executive officer of the California Nursing Students’ Association. She is also the administrator and financial manager of the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition.
Her future goals include increasing the number of nursing schools in California, addressing the nursing shortage, and motivating nurses to become better educated and to help the next generation of nurses grow within the profession.
She says she was “truly honored” and “totally blown away” to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. From the looks of it, she is not done achieving.
Michelle Paolucci is the managing editor and Betsy Bannerman is a freelance writer for NurseWeek.