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In This Issue:
Cardiac Surgery ICU nurses celebrate the Beacon Award.
The BWH Cardiac Surgery ICU has been honored with the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence—the only adult intensive care unit in Boston to receive this prestigious national award.
“This award identifies nursing care on Shapiro 6 West as among the best in the country,” said Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of Patient Care Services. “The competition for this award and the process for applying are very intense, and we are so proud to be recognized for the outstanding care our nurses provide day in and day out.”
Designated by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the award recognizes the nation’s top pediatric, progressive and adult critical care units, representing extraordinary commitment to high-quality critical care standards and dedication to the exceptional care of patients and families.
“This award represents our hard work and desire to improve practice and the care we provide to our cardiac surgery patients,” said Cardiac Surgery ICU Nursing Director Matt Quin, BSN, RN.
Staff of the ICU completed a 70-plus page application, identifying its strengths, as measured against evidence-based national criteria in the areas of recruitment and retention; education, training and mentoring; research and evidence-based practice; patient outcomes; leadership and organization ethics; and healing environment.
“Almost every nurse on the unit wrote a piece of the application,” said staff nurse Karen Politano, BSN, RN, who received this year’s Essence of Nursing Award. “We all got to be involved in the process, and that makes it even more special.”
Nurse Educator Maria Bentain-Melanson, MSN, RN, said that the process of applying for the Beacon Award in and of itself was rewarding.
“As we were compiling data needed for the application, we realized the high quality standards to which we in the Cardiac Surgery ICU and throughout BWH hold ourselves,” she said. “The award is so special because it is a testament of BWH’s passion and commitment to a healthy work environment, collaboration, evidence based practice, value and respect to one another with the overall goal of providing the very best care.”