Nursing Excellence Awards

Our Nursing Excellence Awards are designed to help us as a community recognize exceptional Nurses within our ranks, who through their extraordinary contributions make a difference to their patients, colleagues and the Nursing profession as a whole. Nurses are nominated by their peers for Strength, Commitment and Compassion, defined by the following categories:

Excellence in a Commitment to Direct Patient Care - the recipient must exhibit a high level of clinical expertise in patient care; must promote Lowell General's mission and values by providing excellent service to all customers.
Excellence in Personal Professional Development - the recipient participates in academic and non-academic learning activities; holds full and active membership in a professional organization; has specialty certification; is an active participant in the Clinical Advancement program.
Excellence in Lowell General Hospital Professional Activities - the recipient participates or coordinates in unit/divisional-based projects and activities; serves as a member and actively participates in Lowell General Hospital committees and/or task forces.
Excellence in the Promotion of a Professional Nursing Image - the recipient improves the perception of nursing through the Standards of Performance; represents nursing in the community; is a role model for many nurses; must be an advocate for patients and families.
Excellence in Facilitation of Shared Governance - the recipient networks and shares knowledge about shared governance; must be a role model for effective interdisciplinary practice; works to develop improved patient care practices through evidence-based practice.
Excellence in Commitment to Community Involvement - These are our Florence Nightingale Awards. They represent Florence's enduring symbols: symbols that carry the message of our essence, give us our identity as nurses, and transmit the culture, the ideals, the mission, and the hopes, expectations, and promises of a profession to its members and to the world at large. The hospital's CNO recognizes two nurses for these awards through her direct observation with feedback from patients, families, staff and physicians.

Nursing Excellence Awards Night

The highlight of National Nurses Week is our annual Nurses Excellence Awards Night. This evening is subsidized entirely by the hospital, but is planned by and for nurses, through the Recognition and Retention Council. In addition to the awards, recipients also receive a financial gift from the medical staff and a gift from the hospital that the council has chosen.

2009 Nursing Excellence Awards Lowell General's 21st Nursing Excellence Awards Night was held in May 2009. More than 200 employees and their families as well as all senior management attended. Norm Deschene, the hospital's CEO and President, spoke of the importance of nursing as a whole and recognized the value of nurses not only to the facility, but most importantly to our patients. He noted that, "There is no robot or computer upgrade that can ever take the place of the care of nurses."

Amy Hoey, the hospital's CNO, presented the awards after providing a brief biography for each recipient and detailing the qualifications demonstrated by each winner.

The Honorary Nursing Recognition Award
The requirements for this special award category are simple: you must be a nurse and have had a positive impact on nursing at Lowell General. You need not be a past or current employee, but simply a champion of Lowell General Hospital Nursing.