Nursing Recognition

Recognizing Nurses’ Excellence:
Nurse recognition is a key component of the culture of excellence at Nyack Hospital.  In addition, recognizing excellence in the delivery of nursing care strengthens nurse recruitment and retention.   Direct care nurses find many ways to celebrate and honor their colleagues, their achievements and their specialty practices and to acknowledge the contributions that nurses make every day to patient and health care to the community.

Recognition All the Time
All RN staff wear a nametag bearing the symbol “RN”.  This initiative both promotes patient safety and satisfaction, and provides visible recognition for each Nyack Hospital RN's important role as caregivers. 

The Hospital provides all nurses with the opportunity to participate in a Nursing Clinical Ladder.  The Clinical Ladder provides the opportunity for nurses to progress along a continuum of three levels of Nursing practice.

Hospital Recognition
Nursing Department staff members are all eligible to be nominated for the Hospital’s “Shining Star” award.  This award is part of the Hospital-wide recognition program.

In addition to the “Shining Star” award, Department staff members may be nominated for the “Wholeness of Life” award, offered annually through the Department of Pastoral Care.

All Hospital staff are recognized for increments in length of service at an annual Employee Service Awards Dinner.

Nurses’ Week Recognition
Nyack Hospital’s Nurses’ Week Planning Committee arranges a wide range of events to celebrate all that Nyack Hospital’s nurses mean to each other, to the Hospital’s mission, and to our community.
In addition to the centralized events sponsored by the Hospital, Nyack Hospital participates in Rockland County Nurse Recognition Day celebrations.  Nurse Managers and peers are encouraged to nominate nursing staff members for county-wide nursing excellence awards.  In 2009, three nurses from the Hospital received this acknowledgement.

This year’s National Nurses Week theme is Nurses Trusted to Care. Often described as an art and a science, nursing is a profession that embraces dedicated people with varied interests, strengths and passions because of the many opportunities the profession offers. Nurses work in emergency rooms, private practices, school based clinics, homeless shelters, and more. They work as staff nurses, educators, nurse practitioners and nurse researcher – and serve with passion for the profession and with a strong commitment to patient safety. The purpose of the week long celebration is to raise awareness of the value of nursing and help educate the public about the role nurses play in meeting the health care needs of the American people.

At Nyack Hospital, we recognized the accomplishments of many members on our nursing team at a celebration luncheon held in their honor. At the luncheon, awards were given to those nurses who demonstrated excellence in their profession. For the first time, the Nurse Recognition Week Committee and the Shard Leadership Council, a multidisciplinary group, collaborated and introduced the Nyack Hospital Nightingale Nursing Excellence award and Friend of Nursing award.

The individuals nominated for these awards were:

Nyack Hospital Nightingale Nursing Excellence award
Karen Aversano, RN, Radiology
E. Mark Bobb, RN, Emergency Department
Gabriele Davieds, RN, Home Care
Mary Ellen Greene, RN, Same Day Surgery
Linda Lenahan, RN, Wound Center
Marla Losier, RN, 4 Maze
Eva Manos, RN, PACU
Susan Narzabal, RN, 5 Doctors
Nenita Salubre, RN, Wound Center
Pat Shinners, RN, Radiology
Linda Suarez, RN, Patient Education
Kathleen Telfer, RN, Staff Development
Julie Tomich, RN, Home Care
Annamma K. Varghese, RN, 2D/Pediatrics

Friend of Nursing award:
Jose Delosantos, Laboratory
Eloisabel Monteroy, SICU
Donna Palazzo, Wound Center
Robert Sherlock, Radiology

Nyack Hospital Nightingale Nursing Excellence awards were presented to:
Marla Losier, RN Medical/Surgical Nursing
Mary Ellen Greene, RN Surgical Services
Pat Shinners, RN Outpatient Nursing
E. Mark Bobb, RN Critical Care Nursing
Annamma K. Varghese, RN - Mother/Child Nursing
Kathleen Telfer, RN - Nurse Educator
Gabriele Davieds, RN - Home Care Nursing
Julie Tonmich, RN - Nurse Leader

The Friend of Nursing Award recipient was Jose Delosantos.

In addition, we were very proud to have the following nurses nominated for the Rockland County Nursing Excellence Award:

Debbie Rye, RN - Float Pool
Sandra Ciganek, RN - Float Pool
Dee-Ann Febiar, RN - 4 Maze
Arlene Heitzmann, RN - Nurse Manager
Kathleen Telfer, RN - Staff Development
Anne Marie McGrory, RN - Staff Development
Cheryl Iorio, RN - Staff Development

Congratulations to Sandra Ciganek who received a Rockland County Nursing Excellence Award.

The week ended with a special education programs on "What Does Magnet Mean to Me?" presented by Mary Ann Anderson, MSN, RN, NEA-BC and "Accountable Care: Falls Prevention Intitiatives" presented by Celeste Bethon, MS, RN,NEA-BC. Representatives from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Mercy College and Nyack College joined our team to speak about advanced educational opportunities for our RNs.