Cardiac Surgery ICU a Beacon of ExcellenceBWH Nurse - For and about the Nursing Staff of Brigham and Women's HospitalCardiac Surgery ICU a Beacon of ExcellenceBWH Nurse - For and about the Nursing Staff of Brigham and Women's Hospital

Skip to contents

Cardiac Surgery ICU a Beacon of Excellence


Cardiac Surgery ICU nurses are honored by the National Teaching Institute.

For Mary Aquilino, RN, the most important part of Beacon Award criteria was the emphasis on the role of research and evidence-based practice in the Cardiac Surgery ICU.

“Our practice is guided by the latest evidence and that leads to positive patient outcomes and high patient satisfaction,” said Aquilino, who joined the Cardiac Surgery ICU team in 1994. “Our educator and a group of staff nurses, called Clinical Colleagues, meet monthly to examine practices that we could improve upon which includes finding out what nurses in other units are doing well and learning from them, such as with skin care protocols.”

Practicing using evidence-based guidelines was among the quality standards that earned the BWH Cardiac Surgery ICU the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. Honored at a ceremony held earlier this year at the National Teaching Institute (NTI) in Washington, D.C., the Cardiac Surgery ICU is the only adult intensive care unit in Boston to receive this prestigious national award, which identifies the nursing care in the unit as among the best in the country.

“This award represents our hard work and desire to focus on improving nursing practice and the care our cardiac surgery patients and families receive during their time with us,” said Cardiac Surgery ICU Nursing Director Matt Quin, BSN, RN. “The award certainly is a terrific acknowledgment of our goal to provide the best care possible and has challenged us to engage in meaningful conversation about the care we provide.”

Designated by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (ACCN), 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.

Nurses in the ICU completed the 70-plus page application for the award, identifying the unit’s strengths as measured against specific 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 maintaining a healing environment.

“Almost every nurse on the unit wrote a piece for 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.”

The unit received high marks on nearly all of the application’s 42 questions, with one reviewer remarking, “After reading this, I would think that any nurse would want to work here.”

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.”