| From a field of more than 300 nominees,
48 outstanding nurses have been selected as finalists
for NurseWeek's 2002 California Nursing Excellence Awards.
The finalists will be honored at a reception and dinner
at the Hilton LAX Hotel on April 12, when the top award
winners in eight categories will be announced.
The event, as always, honors nurses and their many
contributions to healthcare. This event began in 1999
as NurseWeek's effort to place a human face and story
on the important contributions nurses make in California.
"We will again have some wonderful nurses to tell
you about in our April 22 edition," said Carol
Bradley, MSN, RN, Regional Vice-President and California
editor.
Recently, Bradley said she had the honor of convening
the review committee to pore over the more than 300
nominations completed by colleagues, coworkers, supervisors,
patients, and even family members. "It is a long
process and not all that easy, but definitely heart-warming
and restorative," Bradley said.
"While each of these nurses' accomplishments is
unique, it became apparent that several traits were
common to all of them: Innovation, Commitment and Courage.
I was also impressed by the enthusiasm reflected in
the words of those taking the initiative to represent
the contributions of the nominees," Bradley added.
At last year's awards ceremony, Richard Brock, RN,
emcee, pondered the difference between the Academy Awards
and the ones for nurses."We're all heroes, but
in today's world that may be considered a throwaway
line. I'm so sorry we're not on national television
like the Academy Awards. [When you hear the finalists'
stories], you'll all be reenergized and realize where
that calling came from," Brock said. "Every
time I do one of these [awards ceremonies] I'm just
more thrilled and impressed that I got to be a nurse."
The awards ceremonies, slated to take place later in
the year in Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas, are always
an occasion to celebrate nurses with can-do attitudes.
NurseWeek event coordinator Tammy Pennington said, "If
we could bottle the enthusiasm for nursing evident at
Nursing Excellence awards and sell it to nursing schools
and high school guidance counselors, there would be
no nursing shortage."
Last year, there were 467 nurses and nursing enthusiasts
gathered for the 2001 awards ceremony. "It was
the largest crowd to date for the Excellence Awards.
…Many of the award winners had to struggle to break
away from their excited families to hurry to the podium
in order to collect their award. It was a very heart-warming
experience," Pennington said.
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