NEW YORK NURSE: April 2008
The Long Island College Hospital (LICH) of Brooklyn recently honored five nurses with Thomas and Elizabeth Butson awards for clinical excellence and compassionate nursing practice. Awardees included labor & delivery nurse Nurva Wolf, operating room nurse Mary Campo-Lewis, post-surgical nurse Charmaine Henry, coronary care nurse Maria Socorro (Suke) Dagat, and intensive care unit nurse Perpetua (Petty) Santos. The ceremony was attended by Cathy Gallogly-Simon, vice president of nursing; Rita Battles, president and CEO; and Elizabeth Butson, who grants the awards annually in memory of her husband, Thomas, who received medical care at LICH. “The ceremony recognizes and celebrates nursing in general, and validates for all of us our choice of this profession…at times difficult, but never boring, nursing is one of the most fascinating and rewarding professions. The nurses we honor are ‘veterans’ in every sense of the word, and they care for patients at every stage of the cycle of life,” said Gallogly-Simon.
Christine Kovner, professor at New York University College of Nursing and a senior fellow at the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, and Carol Brewer, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo School of Nursing, have received an eight-year, $4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to continue their study of newly licensed registered nurses (NLRNs). Kovner, the principal investigator said, “Following the same nurses for the first 10 years of their careers will provide an unprecedented opportunity to learn about how they make decisions about their work.” Co-principal investigator Carol Brewer explained the importance of exploring the conditions that influence nurses to remain in, or leave, their positions. “This grant continues our work about the work patterns of new RNs over time that is particularly important both to the nursing profession and to our healthcare system.” Findings from their current research, “Newly Licensed RNs’ Characteristics, Work Attitudes, and Intentions to Work,” were published in the September 2007 issue of the American Journal of Nursing. Kovner added, “It is vital that we understand the factors that promote the retention of newly licensed RNs as well as factors that lead to the high turnover rates among them.”
James Hewitt, an RN at Elizabethtown Community Hospital recently self-published his master’s thesis, Sick Building Syndrome. The book discusses how poor indoor air quality, noise pollution, lighting, and cleaning chemicals can adversely impact the health of the workforce, and offers prevention ideas and solutions. According to Hewitt, the Environmental Protection Agency once defined indoor air pollution as one of the most significant threats to human health.