In the course of interviewing for the cover story on nurse practitioners this month, I talked with Julia Spinolo, director of University Health Services at Clayton State University in Morrow.
“When you get your RN license, you can fly,” she said.
She wasn’t speaking literally, of course, although flight nurses do practice in the air, but about the many career paths and diverse roles available to nurses. Nursing is a wide-open field that allows you to soar as far as you want in almost any direction.
I become more aware of the abilities and accomplishments of nurses every spring. That’s when an independent panel of judges read through the hundreds of nominations for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ajcjobs Nursing Excellence Awards. Patients, families and co-workers nominated 324 nurses this year, expressing both admiration and gratitude for how a special nurse touched their lives.
It’s amazing to see the diverse places and many ways in which nurses practice. Even more amazing is discovering how many of them go far and above the call of duty when caring for patients.
One nurse educator envisioned, founded and continues to find funding for a clinic for people without health insurance in a seven-county area of North Georgia. Another saved the life of a bus driver while chaperoning a high-school band trip. Still another cleaned the house and arranged to pay the utilities for a patient in hospice care so she could spend her last days comfortably at home with her beloved dogs.
This year’s 10 winners are Jennifer Althausen, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston; Dee Anna Bowbliss, Atlanta Medical Center; Sherrell Burrell, Newton Medical Center; Rich Costello, WellStar Home Health Care; Hank Davis, Odyssey HealthCare; Michael Jicha, Northside Hospital; Grace Newsome, Appalachian Nurse Practitioner Clinic; Edna Schiller, Henry Medical Center; Novlet Smith, WellStar Kennestone Hospital; and Rhonda Smits, East Coweta Middle School.
You can read more about the winners in Celebrating Nurses, a special section that will be inserted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on May 1.
On May 4, we’ll honor the winners at our annual Celebrating Nurses banquet. If you’ve never attended this event, make time this year. It’s always a special celebration of who nurses are and what they do. In other words, it’s for and about you!
This year's luncheon will be at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. To buy tickets ($40 individuals, $350 for table of 10), go to www.ajc.com/go/celebratingnurses .
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