Nurse Week celebration May 13, 2011

UCSF supporting the many faces of Nursing . . . . National Nurses Week will be celebrated on May 6 – 12, 2011, with National Nurses Day being observed on May 6th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale and founder of modern nursing.

Nurses Week was first celebrated in 1954 to mark the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. In 1974, the week was designated by Presidential Proclamation and in 1982 a joint resolution of the United States Congress designated May 6th as "National Recognition Day for Nurses."

Plans for our annual celebration of National Nurses Week are under way! While UCSF nurses uphold the Medical Center’s core mission of caring, healing, teaching and discovering in our care for patients, this is an opportunity to acknowledge those nurses who excel and consistently exceed such expectations.

UCSF nursing takes great pride in recognizing and rewarding nursing staff for the remarkable efforts they demonstrate on a daily basis throughout all areas of the Medical Center where patient care is delivered. The annual Nurse’s Awards celebration ceremony will be held on Friday May 13th from 3-5pm in the Millberry Union Conference center and is open for the public to attend.

Nomination applications for the 2011 Nurse’s Awards are now available online on our Intranet site. Nominations are reviewed by our Core Nursing Councils in the Shared Decision-making structure.

New Awards

This year UCSF has expanded the awards to be more inclusive of all UCSF nurses. The following awards are new awards for the year of 2011 to recognize excellence in the specialties of:

  • Advanced Practice Nurses

  • Ambulatory care

  • Home Health

  • Acute Care (often referred to as Med-Surg, inclusive of both adult and pediatrics)

In addition, two other new award categories have also been added:

  • Colleagues of Nursing

  • Service Excellence

The Colleagues of Nursing award has been created to honor staff that provide exemplary support to Nursing and spans multiple disciplines such as patient care assistants, patient support assistants, dietary, respiratory therapy, and physicians, to name a few. The Service Excellence award honors nurses who provide exceptional service to our patients noted as ‘above and beyond’ our standards of patient care.

The complete list of Nursing awards include:

  • Distinguished Nurse Award

  • Colleague of Nursing Award (new)

  • Service Excellence (new)

  • Excellence in Pediatric Nursing

  • Excellence in Perinatal Nursing

  • Excellence in Acute Care

  • Jeanne Yalon Award for Excellence in Oncology Nursing

  • Excellence in Transplant Nursing

  • Excellence in Leadership

  • Excellence in Mentorship

  • Excellence in Perioperative Nursing (new focus)

  • Sheila Mann Excellence in Cardiovascular Nursing

  • Clifford K. & Avola Wilson Memorial Award for Excellence in Critical Care Nursing

  • Helen Ripple Award for Excellence in Neuroscience Nursing

  • Excellence in Ambulatory Nursing (new)

  • Excellence in Home Health Nursing (new)

  • Excellence in Advanced Practice Nursing (new with addition of inpatient and outpatient separately)

  • Excellence in Community Service

  • Excellence in Patient Safety