Dazzled in Dallas

By Heather Stringer
November 25, 2002

DALLAS-A crowd of about 300 gathered to celebrate the unsung heroes of the nursing profession Nov. 15 during NURSEWEEK's annual Nursing Excellence Awards for the South Central region.

Out of hundreds of nominations, a panel of judges selected 48 finalists for the awards in eight categories. The banquet room at the Marriott Dallas Las Colinas echoed with applause for much of the night as Beth Ulrich, Ed.D., RN, regional vice president and editor of the South Central edition, announced the achievements of the finalists, who represented nurses from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Ulrich kicked off the event by introducing a video produced by Johnson & Johnson. The video included interviews with patients who had been deeply moved by nurses. As the keynote speaker, Ulrich continued the video's theme of unsung heroes throughout the evening.

"One of the things we believe strongly at NURSEWEEK is that nurses are heroes every day," Ulrich said. She highlighted the courage of Florence Nightingale, who had only 40 nurses to care for 3,000 patients. The crowd erupted in laughter when she asked the audience to calculate those nurse-to-patient ratios.

"We do change lives every day, and that's what we are celebrating here tonight," she said. "If you want to know if nurses are heroes, try imagining a world without nurses."

Then the spotlight turned to Cle Rice Riordan who, with her husband, Dennis Riordan, founded NURSEWEEK, which has a circulation of about 1.2 million. The couple was inspired to create the publication largely because of the influential work of Dennis' late twin sister, Diane Cooper, an RN who worked in staff development at UCLA Medical Center and was an undergraduate dean of admissions at the UCLA School of Nursing.

The awards ceremony began with the presentation of the Diane Cooper Nursing Ambassador Award, which was given to Johnson & Johnson for the company's recent campaign to boost not only the image of nursing, but also recruitment and retention in the field. The company plans to spend at least $20 million by the end of next year in an effort to draw more people into the nursing field.

"I just want to say we are so thrilled to be here tonight," said Nancy Lewin, executive director of the corporate equity nursing campaign and new ventures at Johnson & Johnson. "We are thrilled to be involved with nurses."

In recognition of the award to Johnson & Johnson, Ulrich presented a $10,000 check from NURSEWEEK for nursing scholarships to the National Association for Healthcare Recruiters, before calling each of the finalists to the podium.

The eight category winners included:

Advancing the Profession: Elizabeth Winslow, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a research consultant at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. "I'm grateful because there are so many people who do good work and are not recognized."

Clinical Care: Ron Griffin, RN, nurse clinician II at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "This is very unexpected and an honor. Just being a nurse is an honor. I love what I do."

Community Service: Robin Hardwicke, MSN, FNP-C, CCRN, a nurse practitioner at Harris County Hospital District. "I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm very proud to be a nurse and to work amongst all of you."

Innovation/Creativity: Janet Gilmore, MSN, RN, director of perioperative services at The Methodist Hospital. "This is truly an honor. I think nursing is the only profession where you get an award for solving everyday problems."

Leadership: Nancy Ray, MA, RN, associate administrator/chief nursing officer for University Health System. "This is a pretty humbling award. It's not me who does the work. It's really the nursing directors and the staff nurses. Thank you."

Mentoring: Louann Breton, RN, level III staff nurse at Methodist Medical Center. Like many of the award recipients, Breton admitted that she was surprised to be the winner. "I will say it is a big shock," she said. "But it takes good mentors to be a good mentor, and those people for me were my parents, my husband and the management staff at Methodist Medical Center."

Patient Advocacy: Susan Wise Stout, MN, APRN, RNC, LCCE, a perinatal clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Medical Center. "I was so surprised that patient advocacy was a category, because most nurses do that every day," she said. "I feel blessed to work at a hospital that values patient advocacy, and for my family's patience with all the calls on my cell phone and pager."

Teaching: Leslie Wilson, MSN, RN, staff development coordinator at Medical Center of Plano. "I have to share it with all of the nurse educators who have helped to mentor me."

Contact Heather Stringer at heathers@nurseweek.com