On this page, you will find profiles of the 2011 winners of the Celebrating Nurses ajcjobs Nursing Excellence Awards. Related: Photo gallery from the 2011 awards

It’s always special for nurses when patients express gratitude for the care they receive. But when it comes with a hug and an angelic smile, it’s even more meaningful. Rhonda Smits, 50, is the school nurse at East Coweta Middle School in Senoia.

The phrase “Is there a doctor in the house?” is part of the collective consciousness. But sometimes, “Is there a nurse on the plane?” is more appropriate. Novlet Smith, 43, a relief charge nurse at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, was on a 6 a.

Edna Schiller and her teenage daughter were on the way home from a high school band trip to Orlando, when the bus they were riding in pulled over on the highway. A parent asked Schiller to check out the bus driver, who was experiencing strange symptoms.

Grace Newsome, 61, knows what its like to work hard and still need a little help. “I was raised on a farm with a bunch of kids,” said Newsome, founder of the Appalachian Nurse Practitioner Clinic and a professor at North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega.

When he was born, Michael Jicha had birth defects that required “dozens” of surgeries when he was a child. He spent much of his childhood in the hospital and remembers competing in wheelchair races with other children there. “Many of my earliest memories as a child are from the hospital.

There are no nursing directives for how to care for a patient’s family — particularly when the family consists of dogs named JoJo, Fancy Face and Pretty Girl. Fortunately, Hank Davis didn’t need any; he just followed his heart. “I work with a great team and we believe in always doing what’s right for the patient,” said Davis, 50, a hospice liaison nurse with Odyssey HealthCare’s Athens location.

When an unidentified man sat down to play poker at the Smoky Bones location in Kennesaw last fall, he didn’t realize how lucky he would be that night. While he didn’t win the big pot, he got a second chance at life, thanks to Rich Costello, a nurse for WellStar Home Health Care.

Nursing is more than taking vital signs, dispensing medication and changing IV drips. While those clinical tasks are essential, the human element – that human touch – is just as important. Natalie Austin discovered that when her partner, Adrienne, was hospitalized and diagnosed with H1N1 flu in February 2010.

Dee Anna Bowbliss had never been in a neonatal intensive care unit until she was almost finished with nursing school. It was love at first sight. “I’ve worked in the NICU now for 12 years, and it’s a privilege to be there,” said Bowbliss, a nurse at Atlanta Medical Center.

Friends wonder how Jennifer Althausen can bear to be around sick kids all the time. Althausen admits there are hard days, especially when she works with young patients in the technology-dependent intensive care unit at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.