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A dedication to senior citizens

Inspired Comfort Awards — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:28:17 +0000

Andrea Parkhill, RN, BSN

Andrea “Andi” Parkhill, RN, BSN, is being honored with the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award for her unrelenting dedication to the health, safety and well being of senior citizens in her community.

Years of nursing practice have enabled Parkhill to quickly assess a situation and mobilize the community resources needed to find solutions. In one case, Parkhill treated an elderly patient who suddenly stopped attending his wellness sessions. Concerned, she visited his apartment and discovered that he had fallen a few days before and was in significant pain. After consulting with a physician, Parkhill ordered a certified home health aide and a physical therapist to assist the patient. Her environmental assessment identified several safety concerns that she worked with him to correct, allowing him to enjoy living independently and safely in his home.

Parkhill considers her patients’ physical, mental and social condition when creating a plan of treatment. Sometimes this comes at a significant sacrifice of personal time and expense, often far exceeding the expectations of anyone in her job. She began treating an elderly woman who, against the doctor’s advice, checked herself out of the hospital in order to return home to care for her cats. While visiting the woman, Parkhill discovered unsafe living conditions. She not only took the initiative to thoroughly clean and refurbish the apartment, she took the cats to a veterinarian and personally paid for their care and purchased clothes for the woman as a gift.

While working with the patient, Parkhill noticed that other residents of the housing complex exhibited signs of grief and depression. She collaborated with a social worker to address underlying issues of concern, including the loss of friends and access to transportation and other necessary everyday services. The collaboration was so successful that the program is being expanded.

“Andi Parkhill’s remarkable patience, compassion, and generosity of spirit makes the lives of seniors in her community safer and happier,” says Wendell Mobley, director of Cherokee’s scholarship and awards programs. “Her ability to adapt treatment to the total needs of a patient and her willingness to give so much of her time when others might have given up show the life-changing difference a nurse can make.”

The award is granted by Cherokee Uniforms to recognize nurses and other non-physician healthcare professionals who demonstrate exceptional service, sacrifice and innovation and have a positive impact on others’ lives. This is the seventh year the leading designer and manufacturer of healthcare apparel has honored inspirational caregivers.

Parkhill was nominated by Susan Fowler, a coworker at the Visiting Nurses Association of Central Jersey, who explains, “Andi demonstrates the essence of exceptional service by providing a comprehensive, timely and proactive approach to meeting the client’s needs. She sees the entire picture clearly and frames the processes and outcomes of her service with care, compassion and communication.”

Since the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award was established in 2003, more than 7,000 healthcare professionals have been nominated in the Registered Nurse, Advanced Practice Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nurse, Student Nurse and Non-Physician Healthcare Professional categories. A panel of Cherokee representatives and past Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award recipients evaluates nominations and grants the awards.

For every nomination, Cherokee Uniforms donated $1 to Nurse’s House, a national fund that provides short-term financial assistance to registered nurses facing serious hardship. Proceeds from Cherokee Uniforms products support healthcare professionals through initiatives such as the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award, scholarships for students enrolled in nursing school, and an inspirational film for nurses. Cherokee Uniforms will be accepting nominations for the 2010 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award beginning March 1 through May 31, 2010. For further information on the award, please visit http://inspiredcomfort.com. You can also congratulate Andrea on her win in the comment section here.

Nurse makes rural free clinic a reality

Inspired Comfort Awards — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:46:27 +0000

2009 ICA Winner, Diana Webber, MS, ARNP

When her fellow townspeople approached Diana Webber saying they had no insurance and requesting a referral to a healthcare professional, the family nurse practitioner got right to work on their behalf.

With few medical resources available for the uninsured among her southeastern Oklahoma community of 3,000 residents, Webber began methodically assessing her community’s health needs. Her interviews and data revealed a need for free healthcare in the community, and she realized that her experience and expertise could be the difference between families getting necessary primary care – or going without. With the support of her community, Webber founded the Hope Medical Clinic.

For her exceptional service and extraordinary compassion, Webber is one of just six recipients nationwide of the 2009 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. She received the coveted Grand Prize in the award’s advanced practice nurse category.

“Diana Webber’s work to establish a free medical clinic in a rural area demonstrates her great compassion for others and her commitment to helping those who need it the most. Through extensive planning and innovative thinking, she is making a profound impact on her community,” says Wendell Mobley, who directs Cherokee Uniforms’ charitable and scholarship programs.

The community affirmed its support for Webber’s efforts. A local hospital provided space where she could offer a clinic one Saturday a month, and a lab discounted its fees. The clinic began seeing patients in 2008 and logged about 75 patient visits from October through the end of the year. To see more patients, the clinic needs to be open more often, but Webber says she needs more volunteer staff to allow that to happen.

In addition to researching, opening and operating the clinic and working three days a week in a pediatric clinic located 130 miles from home, Webber provided clinical expertise on medical missions in 2008 to Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Nicaragua. She also assists as a Spanish interpreter for the local hospital’s emergency room.

Webber pursued every opportunity that would help her achieve her goal, including participating in a mentorship program through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). She also presented at the AANP’s 2008 national conference and at the Oklahoma Public Health Association’s annual conference, spreading the message to countless healthcare professionals that establishing free clinics was not only possible but necessary for the well-being of people everywhere.

As the Grand Prize Winner, Webber receives an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise for two, a wardrobe featuring the best of Cherokee Uniforms and Cherokee Footwear worth more than $1,000, a Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award trophy and a 14K gold-plated commemorative pin.

But for Webber, the most valuable rewards come from her grateful patients. “One of the most appealing aspects [of nursing] is the genuine appreciation that my patients and families express for the care they receive,” she says. “Just like every other human, I thrive when I know that what I do is appreciated. When my patients or their parents choose me to be their provider or tell me how grateful they are for these two clinics, I am motivated to provide the very best care possible.”

Compassionate care for underserved in Guinea

Inspired Comfort Awards — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:42:45 +0000

2009 ICA Winner, Diaraye Bebe Sylla, RN, BSN

On a 2006 trip to her native Guinea, Diaraye Bebe Sylla, a clinical nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, saw first-hand how little access the people had to healthcare. Armed with a dream to make her fellow Guineans healthier, she searched for a supporter in the area who would help her provide vital medical supplies and services for the citizens of Guinea. Her persistence paid off and a partner stepped forward to help bring relief to her beloved nation and its people.

Sylla’s actions helped birth American Friends of Guinea (AFG), a nonprofit that she now leads as president and which has saved thousands of medically underserved Guineans by providing free medications, supplies and services to health centers and hospitals in the West African country. Due to her valiant efforts, Sylla is one of just six recipients nationwide of the 2009 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. Sylla received the coveted Grand Prize in the award’s registered nurse category.

Sylla spends vacations travelling annually to Guinea with a medical team, usually paying her own way. While there, she and her team focus on hospitals or health centers with the most critical needs and identify high-priority needs to target on the next trip. Once back in the U.S., Sylla seeks additional financial support from her fellow Houstonians in order to meet those needs.

In the summer of 2007, Sylla and her team of physicians and nurses provided cholera camps in Guinea with badly needed antibiotics and intravenous hydration. Cholera is passed from person to person due to poor sanitation and causes severe diarrhea and vomiting, which can quickly lead to dehydration – especially among babies, younger children and the elderly. The team rented trucks and paid for a crew to pick up trash on the streets, hoping to stop the epidemic at its source. Sylla says future top priorities include providing a generator and water well for an area clinic.

“Bebe Sylla’s commitment to providing exceptional, compassionate care in Guinea and enhancing healthcare resources for underserved, often overlooked, populations is saving and changing lives. She is living proof of the difference that one nurse can make,” says Wendell Mobley, who directs Cherokee Uniforms’ charitable and scholarship programs. “Sylla began her career as a nursing assistant and then climbed the ladder to become a licensed vocational nurse and then earned her RN certification. What she has accomplished during that time is amazing, and we are honored to present her with the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award.”

Sylla was nominated by Yvette Ong, associate director of clinical nursing at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where Sylla has worked for the past 11 years. She explains, “I’ve seen pictures of the children she’s helped before and after treatment. To see an emaciated child become so healthy and full of life is very touching. I have great respect for what she does.”

As the Grand Prize Winner, Sylla receives an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise for two, a wardrobe featuring the best of Cherokee Uniforms and Cherokee Footwear worth more than $1,000, a Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award trophy, and a 14K gold-plated commemorative pin.

Her ability to help fellow Guineans is a highlight of her nursing career, Sylla says. She explains, “The happiest moments are when I know I have made a difference in the nursing profession. I helped deliver a baby in Guinea during one of my trips. The mother had been in labor for quite some time so I helped in any way I could. When the baby was delivered, it was a beautiful little girl. When I came the following week to see them, she told me that she named her baby after me. These are some of the moments that make my profession the best.”

Four decades of caring for moms and newborns

Inspired Comfort Awards — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:24:09 +0000

ICA Winner, Rosetta White, LPN

Rosetta White is the kind of nurse whose patients not only remember her name but who often return annually with updates on the children who flourished as newborns under her care.

A nurse in the maternity unit of Carolinas Medical Center for all 39 years of her career, White works tirelessly to meet the clinical and personal needs of mothers and their newborns. If a patient needs clothes for herself or her baby, White will unfailingly find them. She has even gone to patients’ homes to deliver items they have left behind, knowing they did not have transportation to return to the hospital.

For her extraordinarily compassionate care of patients, White was chosen as one of just six winners nationwide in the 2009 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. She received the coveted Grand Prize in the award’s Licensed Practical Nurse/ Licensed Vocational Nurse category.

“Rosetta White demonstrates each and every day how profound she is at what she does. She has served diligently to meet the needs of mothers and babies for nearly four decades and still reaches deep down to provide her patients with her best,” says Wendell Mobley, who directs Cherokee Uniforms’ charitable and scholarship programs.

Honed by experience and knowledge, White’s clinical skills shine when patients’ symptoms may seem routine. Once, while working with a postpartum patient, she noticed that the patient’s feet were swollen. Driven by her keen eye and persistence, she brought the situation to the attention of a physician who obtained an orthopedic consult, resulting in a cancer diagnosis.

While a work shift taking care of the postpartum needs of patients can involve seemingly endless work and grueling physical walking and standing, White sacrifices personal time to serve the public in ways most will never know. She volunteers to coordinate the hospital’s annual blood drive, goes out into the community to help clean and fundraises at the hospital and in the community for the Arts and Science Center of Charlotte and the Children’s Miracle Network.

White was nominated by Linda Thornton, the nurse manager of the Carolinas Medical Center’s Mother/Baby Unit. “This nurse goes above all expectations in everything she does. She should be the poster child for our organization,” Thornton wrote in nominating White for the award.

As the Grand Prize Winner, White receives an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise for two, a wardrobe featuring the best of Cherokee Uniforms and Cherokee Footwear worth more than $1,000, a Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award trophy and a 14K gold-plated commemorative pin.

Dental professional sets up clinic for children

Inspired Comfort Awards — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:59:46 +0000

2009 ICA Winner, Stacey Anderson, RDH

Stacey Anderson, a local registered dental hygienist, borrowed money and even used her own savings to launch a dental health program to prevent and reduce dental disease among uninsured children. Due to her dedication, Anderson is one of just six winners nationwide in the 2009 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. Anderson is the first dental professional to have received the honor in the award’s seven-year history.

She received the coveted Grand Prize in the award’s non-physician healthcare professional category for sharing her resources, talents and expertise with needy children in Wisconsin and Minnesota – many of whom never previously had seen a dentist.

After providing dental hygiene services and oral health education for more than 20 years in private practice, Anderson founded Just Kids Dental Health in 2006. Now she teaches students in 17 elementary and middle schools in two states about oral hygiene and nutrition and works closely with school nurses to manage the care of children who have severe tooth decay. In 2008, the service provided mobile clinic services including cleanings, fluoride varnish, oral health education and sealants during more than 1,300 patient visits.

Medicaid, the government-funded health program, reimburses Just Kids Dental Health for services provided to eligible children – covering about half of Anderson’s costs. She relies on grants and community-based fundraising to make up the difference. The hygienist says she will see any child referred to her by a school nurse or county social worker or any parent having difficulty accessing preventive dental care for their children, regardless of their ability to pay.

“Stacey Anderson exemplifies what can happen when one person sees a need, then tries meeting that need with a driven passion. Through diligence, sacrifice and careful planning, she is making a profound difference in the dental and physical health of children and their families. It is fitting that she is the first dental professional to receive this award,” says Wendell Mobley, who directs Cherokee Uniforms’ charitable and scholarship programs.

Anderson was nominated by Nancy Smith, director of health services for Wisconsin’s School District of Superior. Smith explains, “Stacey deserves this award due to her passion and the immense amount of time she selflessly dedicates to helping underserved children. She followed her own belief – that ‘the greatest risk is in not taking one’ – and passionately believes that dental health is the right of every child.”

As the Grand Prize Winner, Anderson receives an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise for two, a wardrobe featuring the best of Cherokee Uniforms and Cherokee Footwear worth more than $1,000, a Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award trophy and a 14K gold-plated commemorative pin.

For every nomination, Cherokee Uniforms donated $1 to Nurse’s House, a national fund that provides short-term financial assistance to registered nurses facing serious hardship. Proceeds from Cherokee Uniforms products support healthcare professionals through initiatives such as the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award, scholarships for students enrolled in nursing school and an inspirational film for nurses. Cherokee Uniforms will be accepting nominations for the 2010 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award beginning March 1 through May 31, 2010. For further information on the award, please visit http://inspiredcomfort.com. You can also congratulate Stacey on her win in the comment section here.

Mentoring program key for minority students

Inspired Comfort Awards — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:53:17 +0000

2009 ICA Winner, Wallena Gould

As a student in a university nurse anesthesia program in 2003, Wallena Gould never recalled seeing a single minority faculty member. She grew increasingly concerned watching some minority students struggle to excel. Gould packaged her observations about minorities into a required poster presentation to her class and highlighted the statistic that troubled her most: minority practitioners comprised just 6 percent of the nurse anesthesia profession in the U.S.

To reverse the trend, she hypothesized that mentoring would be key to the success of minority students within the profession and to those considering it. For her creative, compassionate and relentless efforts to bring change to an entire profession, Gould was chosen as one of just six winners nationwide in the 2009 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. She received the coveted Top National Prize in the award’s advanced practice nursing category.

Unable to find a mentoring group and still a student, Gould began mentoring her fellow students at La Salle University, in Philadelphia, and even reached out to minority students at Columbia University and University of Maryland. In 2008, balancing a successful career as a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) and family obligations, the former Ernst & Young auditor launched the nonprofit Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program (www.diversitycrna.org) to inform, empower and mentor underprivileged minority students. Her efforts have primed students for successful careers in nurse anesthesia.

Since her time as a student, Gould has mentored approximately 2,000 CRNAs or CRNA candidates, including high school students, resulting in an estimated 80 minority CRNAs joining the profession since 2003. In 2008 alone, she mentored, provided advice or taught more than 900 minority students – all on her own time and at her expense – in events ranging from technical training to educational workshops and intimate dinners in her home celebrating the perseverance and accomplishments of graduating minority nurse anesthesia students. One educational event in 2008 attracted 180 attendees from eight states and also featured leaders in the profession. Another event, an anesthesia airway workshop, allowed over 50 new nurse anesthesia students, ICU nurses and nursing students to experience hands-on learning about airway equipment and anesthesia tools-of-the-trade.

CRNAs provide anesthesia in collaboration with surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists and other qualified healthcare professionals and practice in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

“Wallena Gould has changed lives, fueled visions and made a highly technical and challenging profession a desired destination for minority nurses. And she’s done it at tremendous personal sacrifice and expense. Her efforts to encourage, train and mentor these students will ensure that the medical field has nurse anesthetists who are as dedicated as she is moving into the future,”says Wendell Mobley, who directs Cherokee Uniforms’ charitable and scholarship programs.

Gould was nominated by Wendy Agard, who calls Gould her mentor. “Wallena’s commitment to this program is unbelievable. She works full time during the day and spends her evenings and weekends planning events. She is a wonderful mother and is dedicated in her quest to educate and mentor others. She is always open and available for guidance, questions and genuine encouragement. To know her is simply to be inspired!”

As the Top National Winner, Gould receives an all-expense-paid trip to a 2010 medical conference of her choice, annual membership to a clinical association, a $500 donation to a nonprofit of her choice, a wardrobe featuring the best of Cherokee Uniforms and Cherokee Footwear worth more than $1,000, a Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award trophy, and a 14K gold-plated commemorative pin.