ANCC Announces Recipients of the 2020 National Magnet Nurse of The Year® Awards
SILVER SPRING, MD—The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2020 National Magnet Nurse of the Year® Awards. The recipients were recognized during the 2021 ANCC National Awards Virtual Event on May 14, 2021. A recording of the broadcast is available to view here.
The National Magnet Nurse of the Year® Awards recognize the outstanding contributions of clinical nurses to innovation, consultation, leadership, and professional risk taking. Awards are presented in each of the five Magnet® Model Components: Transformational Leadership; Structural Empowerment; Exemplary Professional Practice; New Knowledge, Innovations, and Improvements; and Empirical Outcomes.
Transformational Leadership*: Allison Reichhold, MSN, APRN, CPNP
Allison Reichhold joined the Heart Failure, Heart Transplant Team at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in 2018. She rapidly identified the need for a position that most pediatric hospitals do not have – VAD coordinator. On her own initiative, Reichhold developed a comprehensive VAD education program to train the entire Cardiac Care Unit team on all devices and VAD patient care to include VAD education days, VAD SIMs, and competency checklists. Reichhold’s expertise, leadership, collaboration, and comprehensive approach has made a measurable impact. In three short years, Lurie Children’s VAD program has gone from implanting around five patients a year to supporting seven patients at once. Not only are more patients on VADs, but the types of VADs available doubled. Compared to a 33% national mortality rate for pediatric VAD patients, Lurie Children’s VAD team has had 100% survival and successful bridge to transplant. Reichhold expanded the outpatient VAD program to include sending the very first child in Illinois to school on a durable VAD.
*Sponsored by Ultimate Kronos Group
Structural Empowerment: Richard Ramos, MSN, RN, CNS, PNP, CPON, BMTCN
Richard Ramos is a Clinical Nurse IV on the hematology/oncology unit at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, in Stanford, California. A strong nursing leader and lifelong learner as an instructor and mentor, Ramos is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who serves on a variety of decision-making committees locally and abroad. Selected to co-lead a pilot program to facilitate a national certification course on chemotherapy handling and administration taught to Latin American nurses, Ramos helped to refine the Spanish translation in addition to piloting the course. Ramos has taught classes in Santiago, Chile and in Memphis, Tennessee. He has been recognized by APHON with an Instructor of the Year Award, acknowledging his work as a Chemotherapy/Biotherapy Instructor. His outstanding work teaching the Latin population is a clear demonstration of his belief in one of Packard Children’s strategic priorities: expanding outreach and providing extraordinary care in the community.
Exemplary Professional Practice*: Roberta Kaplow, Ph.D., APRN-CCNS, AOCNS, CCRN
Dr. Kaplow is a clinical nurse specialist in the Acute Respiratory ICU at Emory University Hospital (EUH) in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Kaplow has collaborated with colleagues to create new care delivery systems and protocols aimed at improving the outcomes of care for patients critically ill with COVID-19, while assuring clinician safety. Dr. Kaplow collaborated with EUH nurses to develop the Warm Zone Method (WZM) as a tactic to conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) use and decrease time spent donning and doffing PPE. Using the WZM, gown use per acute care RN decreased by 13% and time spent donning and doffing PPE decreased an average of 58 minutes per 12-hour nursing shift. Her recent article in Critical Care Medicine regarding care of COVID-19 patients has gained worldwide attention. Dr. Kaplow's frequently cited article "The Value of Certification", has ignited a passion for certification in Emory’s Acute Respiratory ICU nurses, with over 52% achieving specialty certification. She has also made an international impact in guiding others to clinical excellence, by authoring or co-authoring nearly 30 other publications.
*Sponsored by EBSCO Health
New Knowledge, Innovations, and Improvements: Janice Colwell, APRN, CWOCN, FAAN
Jan Colwell, from the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM), has been an Advanced Practice Nurse specializing in wound and ostomy skin care since 1978. She was instrumental in creating an independent APN-led clinic for ostomy care at the UCM. Colwell’s contributions have informed and influenced clinical practice for nurses and physicians not only at UCM, but across the globe. In 2018, Colwell and her co-investigators published the results of an international, multi-site, randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial to compare cost of care and associated patient satisfaction related to maintenance of healthy peri-stomal skin. Her noteworthy contributions toward creating knowledge include authoring 53 peer-reviewed articles, 8 chapters in physician/surgeon textbooks, 6 chapters in general nursing textbooks, creating the stoma curriculum for the American Society of Colorectal Surgeons, and co-editing the last four editions of the textbook used to educate WOC nurses on ostomy care. At the most recent WOCN Conference, Colwell shared a new model of care developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing how to innovatively conduct tele-health visits for ostomy patients. At a time when many clinics across the city were closed, UCM’s ostomy patients used this invaluable resource to access uninterrupted expert care.
Empirical Outcomes: Denise Williams, MS, MEd, BSN, AGNP-C, RN-BC
Denise Williams is a Advanced Practice Nurse in the Ohio Health Grant Medical Center Transition to Outpatient Care clinic in Columbus, Ohio. Williams provides bridge care for patients who do not have a primary care physician to follow up with after their ED or inpatient stay. Her role is vital to the community because she often treats those who are uninsured or have other financial difficulties in addition to complex medical issues. Williams calls patients after their clinic visits to discuss their progress and learn about any new issues, which ensures that they have a strong understanding of their diagnosis and treatment plan. Williams also created a process for referrals from the ED to the Transition to Outpatient Care clinic, and partnered with inpatient providers to prioritize follow-up for patients with high-risk diagnoses, thereby reducing re-admissions. In the last year, remarkable outcomes have been achieved because of her work:
- Not one patient left the clinic without being seen
- 90% of patients did not return for an ED visit within 30 days
- And 93% of patients did not require inpatient re-admission within 30 days
Congratulations to the recipients of the National Magnet Nurse of the Year® Awards!
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About ANCC
The mission of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association, is to promote excellence in nursing and healthcare globally through credentialing programs. ANCC's internationally renowned credentialing programs certify and recognize individual nurses in specialty practice areas. ANCC recognizes healthcare organizations that promote nursing excellence and quality patient outcomes while providing safe, positive work environments. In addition, ANCC accredits healthcare organizations that provide and approve continuing nursing education and accredits transition-to-practice programs that prepare nurses for new practice roles. For more information about ANCC, visit us at nursingworld.org/ancc and follow us on Twitter. ANCC is the only nurse credentialing organization to successfully achieve ISO 9001: 2015 certification.
About the Magnet Recognition Program®
The Magnet Recognition Program recognizes healthcare organizations for quality patient care, nursing excellence, and innovations in professional nursing practice. Consumers rely on the Magnet® designation as the ultimate credential for high-quality nursing. Developed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), Magnet is the leading source of successful nursing practices and strategies worldwide.