{"id":59737,"date":"2012-05-04T15:37:09","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T19:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=59737"},"modified":"2012-05-10T11:45:36","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T15:45:36","slug":"health-center-celebrates-its-nurses-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/05\/health-center-celebrates-its-nurses-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Center Celebrates Its Nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sharon<\/a>
Sharon Levesque (left) and Kathy Williams are Emergency Department Nurses. Williams is a 2012 Nightingale Award winner; Levesque won a Nightingale Award in 2009. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The UConn Health Center\u2019s annual weeklong celebration of its nurses returns with massage, yoga, teas, and ice cream to go along with a full schedule of workshops and lectures.<\/p>\n

National Nurses Week started with RN Recognition Day May 6 and continues through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cAdvocating, Leading, Caring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always felt nursing is a calling,\u201d says Chief Nursing Officer Ellen Leone. \u201cWe go into nursing because we want to help people and make a difference in people\u2019s lives. We have the ability to work in all kinds of settings and roles. We are there welcoming new babies into the world, and helping people pass at the end of their life. And we are die-hard patient advocates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NursesThe Danforth O\u2019Neil Fund, established in honor of the Health Center\u2019s founding director of nursing, Claire O\u2019Neil, and her parents, makes many of the Nurses Week programs possible. This year\u2019s keynote speaker is Joe Tye, a leadership consultant to the health care industry. Tye presented \u201cThe Florence Prescription: Building a Culture of Ownership on a Foundation of Values<\/a>\u201d Wednesday, May 9, in Keller Auditorium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to offer a variety of educational programs throughout the course of the week,\u201d Leone says. \u201cWe try to do things that are hot topics, things for nurses going back to school, and offer some care for the caregiver too. My favorite thing is to really honor nurses who have gone above and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the \u201ccare for the caregiver\u201d offerings include 10-minute chair massages, roving office yoga, an afternoon tea tasting, and Leone delivering ice cream to her nursing units.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From left: Oncology nurses Christine Kopcha and Marcy Kosak in the UConn Health Center's adult ambulatory care unit. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Department of Nursing website<\/a> has a complete rundown of the week\u2019s events, which also include, for the first time this year, a candlelight memorial for staff members who have passed away in the last year. Among the honorees are Rick Michaud, an OR nurse trained in all aspects of surgical procedures who last worked in the endoscopy suite, and nurse anesthetist Rich Krajewski, who worked in many areas of the Health Center over his career and served with the U.S. Army Reserves in the first Gulf War.<\/p>\n

Following the memorial service, pastoral care staff went to the nursing units to offer a blessing of the hands to caregivers.<\/p>\n

\"Health<\/a>
Health Center 2012 Nightingale Award Winners. Click image to view larger version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cUConn nurses are extremely dedicated, not only to their patients, but to the organization,\u201d Leone says. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt it\u2019s the nursing care and interaction with the nurse that leaves a lasting impression on every patient experience. Quality of nurses within an organization is so important. That\u2019s really the backbone of the reputation of the organization. We have always gotten great feedback, and we\u2019ve gotten even more over the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Nurses Week, the UConn Health Center is celebrating its 2012 Nightingale Award recipients<\/a>. This year\u2019s Nightingale Awards for Excellence in Nursing Gala<\/a> is Thursday, May 10<\/strong>, at the Hartford Marriott Downtown.<\/p>\n

\"Nurse<\/a>
Nurse Jamie Hinchliff (left) and nurse practitioner Marlene Culley, a 2012 Nightingale Award recipient, work in the UConn Health Center's intensive care unit. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are approximately three million registered nurses in the United States. More than 600 of them are employed by the UConn Health Center, which also trains undergraduate and advanced practice nursing students. In recent years, nurse practitioners have assisted physician faculty in teaching Principals of Clinical Medicine<\/a> at the UConn School of Medicine, offering a nursing perspective to a course designed to help students develop the skills to work in an interprofessional team.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Nurses Week is May 6-12. The annual Nightingale Awards Gala is May 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":59741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-59737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized","category-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:18:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59737"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59980,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59737\/revisions\/59980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/59741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59737"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=59737"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=59737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}