2019 Excellence in Nursing Awards - Direct Care
Emelita Bennett
B.S.N., RN, CCRN
Registered Nurse, Apheresis
From her nominator: “She is regularly seen with patients after her shift ends, always striving to go above and beyond, staying when families are stuck in traffic and running late so a patient will not be alone.”
Rebecca Deisler
B.S.N., RN, PMHN-BC
Clinical Manager, Psychiatry
From her nominator: “Her passion for mental health care and our patients is second to none. She gives of her own resources to provide bus tickets or clothes for patients in need, fights to reduce stigma, and challenges our team to continually raise the bar for the level of care we provide our patients.”
Claudia Engle
B.S.N., RN, CWOCN
Wound Ostomy
From her nominator: “Claudia steps up to make patient assignments for the team and focuses on providing consistent care to our wound ostomy patients. A co-worker stated Claudia truly personalizes patient care, going out of her way to find some of the most challenging cases what they need.”
Sara Gray
B.S.N., RN, CCRN, SCRN
Registered Nurse
From her nominator: “Sara recently was assigned to a very difficult patient on the unit that other nurses had trouble with. The patient and Sara developed a good relationship, and when making charge nurse rounds, the patient mouthed to me, ‘Sara is patient with me. She takes her time communicating with me; she will wait for me to mouth words since I cannot write. This can take a long time, but Sara always waits.’”
Kelli Hulsman
M.S., B.S.N., RN, IBCLC, LCCE
Lactation
From her nominator: “Mothers, babies, nurses, and staff are so lucky to experience the compassionate care and expertise this nurse offers each and every day. At our institution, she has been active in the lactation initiative we are embarking on to help with the integration of lactation tenets into the care planning for neonatal intensive care unit babies.”
Verita Ingram
MBA, B.S.N., B.B.A., RN
Nurse Manager, Imaging Services
From her nominator: “She successfully helped lead a collaborative effort involving a multidisciplinary team of eight nurses, along with two apheresis technologists to provide didactic, hands-on PIV training to 240 medical students. This endeavor was the first of its kind, with nurses leading and providing skills training of this magnitude, as part of the medical curriculum.”
Kay Jones
RN, CCRN
Clinic RN – Pulmonary Hypertension
From her nominator: “I recently met a patient in clinic that told me Kay saved her life. She went on to say that when Kay worked in Heart Failure as a clinic nurse, she as a patient had some medical issues and Kay followed her from the beginning of that issue and encouraged her to get emergency treatment all the way through the complications she had afterward. The patient ended up establishing a scholarship at UT Arlington School of Nursing in Kay’s name for senior nursing students with a 3.8 GPA and above. This scholarship is still in effect today.”
Joslin Swanfeldt
M.S.N., RN, CNOR, NE-BC
Operating Room Nurse Manager
From her nominator: “She helped develop a new pathway that allows our gynecology/oncology patients to not have to be transported via ambulance to our off-site treatment center for radiation. Instead, she and others collaborated with the radiation oncologist group to figure out a way to schedule the treatments within the OR and still provide the needed treatment.”
Cheryl Thaxton
D.N.P., RN, CPNP, FNP-BC, CHPPN, ACHPN
Nurse Practitioner
From her nominator: “She helped to develop a national curriculum for pain and palliative care that is evidence-based. The End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum is taught across the U.S. and abroad in several languages. Dr. Thaxton also works to help implement palliative care principles at the bedside for both adult and pediatric patients. Through her years of work and dedication in the clinical setting as well as in education, she has helped to improve the quality of life for patients with chronic and life-limiting illnesses.”