March of Dimes-NJ Honors Nurses and Advocates
Monday June 15, 2009
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Pictured at the awards gala are honorees from right to left (front row): Lisa Myers, Joanne Hall, Joyce McKeever, Christine Novak, Catherine Vieira, Terri McIntosh-Mount. Back Row: Christine Catts, Ann Coyle, Valerie French, Kathleen Mahoney, Roselyn Young, Malgorzata Lisowska, Kimberly Druist, Denise Andino, Celeste Andriot Wood.
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The award winners told joy-filled and inspiring stories about the mothers and infants they served. They spoke of mothers they had nurtured and supported as well as those who had taught them poignant lessons. The nurses remembered not only the babies whose lives they had saved but also those whom they ushered to a peaceful end and for whom they mourned alongside the parents.
The collective message from the honorees was maternal/child health nurses are patient advocates who love what they do and grow as a result of their jobs.
“Maternal/child health nurses speak the language of birth, compassion, and assistance in a practice that encompasses those trying to achieve pregnancy, the childbearing, the laboring, new moms and dads, and the newborn,” said keynote speaker Kathleen Mahoney, RN, APN, a perinatal clinical nurse specialist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital-New Brunswick. Mahoney is a member of the Social Equity in Birth Outcomes Coalition led by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, the March of Dimes N.J. Chapter, and the Northern N.J. Maternal/Child Health Consortium.
The March of Dimes, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature births, and infant mortality, presented awards to nurses in several categories at the gala.
Advanced Practice Clinical: Christine Catts, RN, Virtua Health System-Voorhees, a highly skilled neonatal nurse practitioner, is a catalyst for new clinical initiatives in the NICU, for example, the Vermont Oxford Network Quality Improvement Series 2007-08.
Clinical: Denise Andino, RN, Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey, is a nurse home visitor for the Nurse Family Partnership Program, a prevention and home visitation program for low-income, first-time mothers.
Leadership: Terri McIntosh-Mount, RN, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, is the perinatal addiction clinical coordinator at Jersey Shore Addiction Services in Asbury Park, N.J. She provides care to pregnant, substance-abusing women.
Clinical Leadership: Valerie French, RN, JFK Medical Center, assists in the professional growth and education of staff in four departments, Labor & Delivery, Nursery, Post Partum, and Perinatal Education.
Clinical Education: Roselyn Young, RN, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, is a clinical nurse specialist who improves patient care through education of patients, family, nursing and medical students, and physicians.
Community Education: Catherine Vieira, RN, Central New Jersey Maternal/Child Health Consortium, is a nurse educator and coordinator of the consortium’s Fetal Infant Mortality Review Program.
New Jersey Hero: This category honors a nurse who has saved or attempted to save a life or volunteered time under adverse conditions, such as a natural disaster or catastrophic event, outside of usual work duties. Lisa Myers, RN, Virtua Health System-Voorhees, is a pediatric ED nurse who trains search-and-rescue dogs. Myers was deployed to the Gulf Coast on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for relief efforts for victims of hurricanes Gustav, Hannah, and Ike.
The Executive Nurse: This award is given to an executive RN who has demonstrated exceptional maternal/child health leadership. Joyce McKeever, RN, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, is a nurse manager of maternal/child health who advocates for midwifery care, supports patients’ rights, and has partnered with pediatricians to create a strong and definitive nursing department policy on promoting and protecting breastfeeding.
The Apprentice: This is given to a nurse who has graduated within the past two years, has been a catalyst for change, and has made a positive impact in the clinical setting. This year’s award went to Malgorzata Lisowska, RN, of Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
New Jersey Nurse: Ann Coyle, RN, Virtua Health System- Voorhees, is a NICU nurse who cares for critically and chronically ill infants. She leads the “Hoping” support group for any family that has suffered the loss of a baby or child.
Best for Baby: Christine Novak, RN, Overlook Hospital, is an L&D nurse who brought to the hospital “Calm Birth,” evidence-based stress-reduction practices to enhance wellness with expectant mothers.
Joanne Hall, LCSW, is a maternal/child social worker at the Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital-New Brunswick. Hall is an advocate for the health and welfare of pregnant women and children. She is a bereavement counselor who has been instrumental in developing the post-partum depression screening program at the hospital.
Celeste Andriot Wood, assistant commissioner for the Division of Family Health Services Public Health in the NJDHSS, helped to establish a nationally respected and emulated network of programs that serve as the infrastructure for the delivery of maternal child health expertise to New Jersey’s citizens.
Lorraine Steefel, RN, DNP, CTN, is a contributing writer to Nursing Spectrum. To comment, e-mail editorNJ@nursingspectrum.com.
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