Nursing Excellence Award Brunch

Hello,

I was nominated for a Nursing Excellence Award by my peers and attended a big awards brunch on Friday, May 8 at LDS Hospital. It was so cool to see so many old friends—nurses I’ve met over the years, who now work in different hospitals or units. It’s Nurses’ Week (yep, we get a whole week), so it was the time of year for the award ceremony.

I hung out with the other nominees from my unit, Natalie Brown, Jessica Maynard, and Cindy Barnes. Curtis Gardner, the only other nominee from our unit, couldn’t be there because he had to work the night before and the night after the brunch. All the managers of the units were there, and our excellent manager, Dale Cable was present. We’ve got an amazing team and our unit has achieved the highest patient satisfaction scores this year out of any unit in the entire region—a big deal in our world. We strive to take such good care of our patients and getting recognized is rewarding.

Honestly, I feel like I’m a good nurse, but let me tell you, the ladies and gentlemen that I work with are incredible. I pale in comparison to them. Sure, you might want me to run the Code Blue as I have a lot of experience, but I’d rather have them as my nurse if I were a patient. The nominated people from my unit are nurses that I oriented and trained when they were new, and I feel like they are the perfect example of the student surpassing the teacher. I gave them as a good an orientation as I could, and they took whatever I had to offer to a new level. I’m just so proud of them and the care that they give to our patients.

The whole brunch was filled with managers talking about the nominees and how awesome they were. I felt like there was a lot to be learned listening to the managers speak about the nominees. I definitely want to step up my game as a nurse, and be more like the other nominees. I want to be more patient and kind, like so many of them.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that after thirteen years in the nursing profession, and four years of schooling before that, I still love being a nurse.

Paul Genesse RN BSN, Charge Nurse of CVU 3 at Intermountain Medical Center