AJC’s Celebrating Nurses honors Tammy King

Pictured here, from left to right: Kevin Riley, executive editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Tammy King, chief nurse executive at Shepherd Center at the inaugural winner of the AJCJobs Celebrating Nurses Executive Nursing Leadership Excellence Award; and Linda A. Streit, dean of the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University, sponsor of the award.

Credit: Cindy Harter Photography 77054

Credit: Cindy Harter Photography 77054

Pictured here, from left to right: Kevin Riley, executive editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Tammy King, chief nurse executive at Shepherd Center at the inaugural winner of the AJCJobs Celebrating Nurses Executive Nursing Leadership Excellence Award; and Linda A. Streit, dean of the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University, sponsor of the award.

For the 12th consecutive year, AJCjobs celebrated nurses throughout metro Atlanta and Georgia during the annual Nursing Excellence Awards. But this year, organizers introduced a new honor: the Executive Nursing Leadership Excellence Award, sponsored by Mercer University.

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The award recognizes a chief nursing officer or chief nursing executive from a metro Atlanta hospital “who demonstrates advocacy, vision and collaboration to improve patient care and the nursing workplace.”

This year, the inaugural award went to Tammy King of the Shepherd Center.

During her 40-plus years at the facility, King has worked her way up the ladder, holding positions as a staff nurse, change nurse and now chief nurse executive. One of her most notable mandates requires all Shepherd Center RN’s to hold a nationally recognized certification. Now 70 percent of the registered nurses there hold a certification.

“If humanity has a face, I dare say it is that of a nurse – and Tammy King and her career are infused with humanity,” said Glenn Prescott, nursing program manager of Shepherd Center.

Want to know more about the ceremony?  Take a look at the highlights below.

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