The Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center on Thursday night announced the winners of the 2015 Nightingale Luminary and Star Nursing Awards.
The awards honor “exceptional nurses from the region whose hard work continues to improve community health,” the organization said in a news release Friday.
The winners in the Clinical Practice category were:
Advocacy: Mary Jo Seiter, Mercy Regional Medical Center director of urgent care at Purgatory.
Innovation: Lillian Bostrom, Southwest Memorial Hospital operating room.
Leadership: Enid Acosta-Leisenring, Hospice of Montezuma County, deputized coroner.
The winners in Administration, Education, Research or Nontraditional Practice were:
Advocacy: Alexandria Anderson, San Juan Basin Health Department, Nurse Family Partnership, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) coordinator for the 6th Judicial District.
Innovation: Colleen Sullivan-Moore, Pagosa Springs Medical Center, Women’s Service Oncology nurse navigator.
Leadership: Meghan Higman, Southwest Memorial Hospital education coordinator.
More than 100 people attended the awards ceremony at the Fort Lewis College Concert Hall.
As part of the statewide Nightingale program, regional award recipients from across Colorado will be honored at the state event in Denver later this spring.
The Nightingale Awards event was founded in 1985 to honor nurses who best exemplify the philosophy and practice of Florence Nightingale, the 19th-century nursing pioneer.
Also honored were the annual Star Nursing Award recipients, Jennifer Heath and Alicia Shipp.
Heath was awarded the Shining Star Award. The Shining Star honors a registered nurse who has worked or is currently working within the field of nursing, has 15 or more years of experience, has demonstrated leadership skills, and has made an impact on the profession and/or patients.
Shipp was presented the Rising Star Award. The Rising Star recognizes a nurse who is currently working in Southwest Colorado, has five years or less experience and shows leadership and growth potential.
Other nurses from the Four Corners who were nominated for the Star Award include Raelyn Brown, Kevin Fox, Carol Ann Hendrikse, Nicole Loyd, Robin Nodland, Mary Beth Paletta, Ann Robinson and Yvonne Valdez-Gilbert.
The Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center is a regional non-profit organization in Southwest Colorado that broadly focuses on improving access to quality health care in eight counties: Archuleta, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Montezuma, Ouray, San Juan and San Miguel.
cslothower@durangoherald.com
