The tables at the eighth annual ajcjobs Nursing Excellence Awards luncheon on May 7 came fully stocked with salad, bread, beverages, baked chicken and tissues. Yes, tissues.
They’ve become a necessity at the event, Channel 2 Action News evening anchor Jovita Moore told the audience of about 560 as she dabbed tears from her eyes . Stories about special nurses who went above and beyond the call of duty to help patients tugged at the heart and the tear ducts.
To function in today’s complex health care arena, nurses need clinical skills and a command of medical knowledge and technology. Yet when patients, families and co-workers nominate outstanding nurses who have touched their lives (as 350 people did this year), they talk less about clinical skills and more about kindness, empathy, dignity, respect and support.
Anne Young nominated Christopher Piller, a nurse at Athens Regional Medical Center, who cared for her extended family after her brother-in-law died in an auto accident.
“What he did for us that night was more than his job and more than being a nurse. He was exactly who we needed at exactly when we needed him,” she wrote.
In excerpts from nomination letters and video tributes to the top 10 honorees, the audience at the Cobb Galleria Centre heard that to the most passionate practitioners, nursing isn’t about a degree, a job title, recognition or rewards. It’s about having a “palpable sense of human compassion,” “fixing things and making them better,” and sometimes just “a chat, a hug or a caring presence.”
Small things. Loving things. Going above-and-beyond things. In an imperfect world , we don’t always do them. But when someone does, our hearts respond. Hence, the celebration — and the tissues.
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