Dear Nurse Colleague:

Thank you to all our nurses for your commitment and for your ongoing contributions to our mission. You are a very large part of why our institution is regarded as one of the best in the country. I sincerely appreciate your hard work and dedication in the care of patients and families every day of every year.

This time of year is typically a time of celebration and recognition throughout the nursing profession. At BWH, the celebration of National Nurses Week is extended over three weeks to give our nurses the opportunity to be recognized publicly and to join in the festivities. This year, our calendar of celebration included the clinical colleague and preceptor breakfast, the ice cream social, lobby displays of our impressive professional contributions and accomplishments, workshops, conferences and, of course, our annual Nursing Recognition Dinner.

My first nurses’ celebration as your CNO has been filled with many highlights. One of the most rewarding is talking with nurses who exhibit excellence within their practice. Celebrating the nurses who are our Mary S. Fay Essence of Nursing Award nominees makes me proud of our entire community of nurses. This year’s recipient, Ellie Bergin Ericson, BSN, RN, 7C SICU, like all the impressive nominees—MaryAnne Bennett, BSN, RN, NICU, Marian Fitzgerald, RN, 14AB, Karen Reilly, BSN, MBA, RN, 12ABC, and Marjorie Rogers, BS, RN, CCRN, MICU—represent the best of our nursing community at BWH.

With her family among her many colleagues in the audience, Ellie accepted our highest nursing honor with the same grace and humility with which she practices nursing on 7C. In her acceptance remarks, Ellie echoed the sentiments of the nominees and many colleagues when she spoke of what is needed for expert practice to grow—the curiosity and challenge to keep learning, multidisciplinary and nursing teamwork, pride in our work, good leadership, attention to building connections and healing relationships with patients, families and each other and a sense of humor that allows us to laugh at ourselves. Ellie and all the nominees speak of themselves as representatives of the many nurses throughout BWH who day after day bring the best of caring practices to their patients and families. They speak of how they have benefited in their own practice from experienced nurses who took an interest in them as they learned. Now they are giving back by guiding and teaching our newly licensed nurses. In his letter supporting Ellie’s nomination, Dr. Selwyn Rogers said she is “a role model for young nurses and residents alike of how the secret of caring for a patient is to care about the patient.” These same sentiments were echoed in all the nominations and can be said about expert nurses throughout BWH.

Our expert nurses are leaders who play a vital role on the multidisciplinary care teams throughout our distributed campus. Outside BWH, our nurses are looked to as leaders and innovators within the nursing profession. Recent issues of BWH Nurse have listed just a few of the contributions our nurses have made in professional associations, as well as accolades received from many of the same groups. Academically, as we enter graduation season, our nurses are well represented as students and teachers in nursing schools throughout the area.

Ellie, MaryAnne, Marian, Karen and Marjorie represent the strength of expert nursing practice at Brigham and Women’s. They represent what is possible for all of us.