Southampton, NY—Nurse leaders from Long Island’s hospitals and nursing education programs gathered Wednesday, May 17 at the Woodbury Country Club to bestow recognition upon their nurse peers at the Nurse of Excellence Award Ceremony hosted by the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council (NSHC). One nurse from each of the Hospital Council’s member hospitals was nominated for the award, which recognizes outstanding leadership and clinical practice. Deans of area nursing schools also submitted nominations recognizing nursing excellence in education and clinical practice. “The most important person for patients in a hospital is the nurse,” said Kenneth Roberts, chair of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council and CEO of John T. Mather Memorial Hospitals. “Nurses are there 24/7 taking care of patients.” The Hospital Council’s annual salute to nurses is fashioned after the New York State Legislature’s Nurse of Distinction Program that ended in 1995. NSHC is one of the few hospital associations in the state to continue this program voluntarily. It is now in its 22nd year. The NSHC represents Long Island’s not-for-profit and public hospitals.
Photo caption: (from left) Valerie Terzano, MSN, RN, NEA-BC , Chair of the Nurse Excellence Sub-Committee and Senior Vice President of Nursing/Chief Nursing Officer, Winthrop-University Hospital; Mary Jane Galka, RN, BC, Southampton Hospital’s nurse nominee; Patricia A. Darcey, RN, MS, NE-BC, Vice President of Patient Services/Chief Nursing Officer, Southampton Hospital; and Keisha Wisdom MA, RN, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical.