Emory’s chief nurse gets editing award

Mary Gullatte, Ph.D., RN, APRN, associate chief nursing officer at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, was awarded the 2008 APEX Publication Award of Excellence for editing the “Clinical Guide to Antineoplastic Therapy: A Chemotherapy Handbook.”

The handbook (second edition) provides cancer care professionals with detailed information on all aspects of chemotherapy administration.

“This is, indeed, an unexpected honor,” Gullatte said. “After working for 31 years as an Emory nurse caring for cancer patients, I hope this handbook will aid and teach many other nurses and physicians about best practices and compassionate care for their patients.”

Gullatte has published more than 70 articles and book chapters, along with two books.

ELECTION RESULTS: Georgia Nurses Association president Cindy Balkstra, MS, RN, CNS-BC, has been elected chairperson of the American Nurses Association’s Constituent Assembly. The assembly is comprised of the presidents and CEOs of the state nurses associations that are affiliated with the American Nurses Association.

“It’s always an honor when your work is acknowledged by a group of your peers, such as the Constituent Assembly,” Balkstra said. “Our profession has reached a critical juncture in which the decisions we make today have major ramifications on our practice in the future.”

Balkstra, who will serve a two-year term, is a board-certified pulmonary clinical nurse specialist and is working as a direct caregiver in acute care and home hospice care.

ON THE BOARD: Regina Medeiros, RN, MHSA, has been named to the Georgia Statewide Trauma Action Team Advisory Board. She is the trauma program manager at MCGHealth Medical Center in Augusta.

Medeiros joins other health care providers, and government and business leaders on the 19-member board, whose task is to educate Georgians about the need for a statewide trauma system. Georgia has 15 trauma centers — about half the number that many state health officials say it needs.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT: The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked pediatric nurse Laura Moore, founder and CEO of Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, to lead two workshops at its national conference and exhibition next year in Washington, D.C.

Dream House helps children transition from hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers back to their homes or to new homes with foster or adoptive parents. Moore will lead discussions on the Dream House Family for Keeps programs, which trains family members how to care for medically fragile children in the home.

GETTING GOOD GRADES: Two metro Atlanta hospitals were cited in HealthGrades’ 11th annual Hospital Quality in America Study for 2009.

The independent health care ratings company ranked DeKalb Medical in Decatur No. 1 in Georgia for stroke treatment and named it the 2009 Clinical Excellence Award for treatment of the condition.

The award places DeKalb Medical’s clinical outcomes in the top 10 percent nationally for stroke treatment.

HealthGrades also cited Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta as the 2009 clinical excellence award for cardiac surgery. Piedmont Hospital received five-star ratings in coronary bypass surgery, treatment of heart attack and treatment of heart failure, and was named Best in Atlanta for Overall Cardiac Care and Cardiac Surgery for the second consecutive year.

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