To be compared to Florence Nightingale is perhaps the highest compliment a nurse can receive. Just ask the six who received the 2005 Nightingale Award for Human Caring -whose commitment to the arts of healinggo beyond what is expected.
Rosemarie Gibbons, for example, has been a nurse for 28 years, 22 in the Army Nurse Corps. Before retiring as a lieutenant colonel and becoming acute-care director at the San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, Gibbons was assistant chief nurse of the 10th M.A.S.H. unit in Iraq and a pediatric nurse-practitioner. When she’s not at the hospital, she volunteers at a local thrift shop, for the local Diabetes Education Empowerment Program or for the valley’s HIV Task Force.
Fellow winner Robert Montgomery was an engineer before becoming a nurse 10 years ago. As he puts it, “I went from working in science to working in the science of caring because I wanted to care for people, make a difference in their lives and help them in a direct and meaningful way.” He’s a pain management specialist at University Hospital in Denver; he also volunteers for the 9Health Fair, the Triple Bypass Bicycle Ride and building new trails in an open space park.
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Other gala awardees were Kelly Johnson, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Craig Hospital; Cindy Neal, a family nurse practitioner at Marillac Clinic in Grand Junction; Rhoda Rogers, diabetes nurse educator at Salud Family Health Centers in Fort Lupton; and Joyce Vernon, staff nurse at Odyssey Health Care and Hospice in Colorado Springs.
Two hundred eighty five nurses were nominated for the award; of those, 15 made the finals and six were chosen for the honor. The finalists received crystal mementos; the winners were given Nightingale sculptures created by artist Jan Searle-Kubby.
Finalists were Pam Boehm, clinical director of orthopedics and rehabilitation services at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins; Barry Chamberlain, ICU staff and charge nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital and Medical Center in Grand Junction; Debbie Johnson-Sasso, director of education at Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree; Jennifer Lund, health coordinator for Catholic Charities/Archdiocese of Denver; Catherine Owens, nurse educator and affiliation coordinator for the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System; Janna Petrie, outcomes coordinator and staff nurse in the medical intensive care unit at University Hospital in Denver; Cristina Swinsick, chemotherapy/infusion program coordinator at Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs; Berbara Werts, vice president for patient services and chief nursing officer at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver; and Cynthia Woodruff, staff nurse for the Medical Center of Aurora’s cardiovascular services.
The dinner chaired by Judith Burke and Jane Koeckeritz is the main fundraiser for the Colorado Nurses Foundation Scholarship Fund.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-820-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
