Nurses honored for their dedication to care

Mount Sinai South Nassau’s conference center was packed from wall to wall and seat to seat on May 5 as the hospital joined by family and friends and state and local elected officials gathered to recognize, honor and thank the members of its’ nursing staff at the hospital’s Annual National Nurses Week Kickoff Breakfast celebration.

Each year, National Nurses Day, also known as National RN Recognition Day, is celebrated on May 6 and opens National Nurses Week. Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12, the birth date of Florence Nightingale. During this special week, nursing staff at Mount Sinai South Nassau are recognized for their dedication and commitment.

This year, the 2023 Daisy Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Margaret Hempstead, nurse manager of intravenous therapy, and the 2023 Daisy Leader Award to Lynn Bert, the nurse manager of pediatrics. Hempstead received the award in honor of her 44 years of dedication to nursing through active mentoring, role modeling, advocating for patients and promoting the positive image of nursing.

Bert received her award in recognition of her enduring and trademark work to support staff in their mission and vision to provide standard-setting, compassionate, skilled care for patients and their families.

“Today we celebrate the flame of Florence Nightingale’s legacy,” said Eileen Hinrichs, member of the hospital’s nursing holistic council, “that that same light be rekindled to burn brightly in our hearts. Let us take up our own lanterns of caring, each in our own ways, to more brightly walk our own paths of service to the world, to more clearly share our own noble purpose with each other. May human caring become the lantern for the 21st century. May we better learn to care for ourselves, for each other, and for all creation.”

Other significant highlights included the recognition of Gretchen Kretkowski, a labor and delivery nurse, who was Mount Sinai South Nassau’s nominee for the 2023 Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council Nurse of Excellence Award; the awarding of the 2023 Daisy Team Award to the hospital’s Wound Care.

In addition to a commemorative graduation ceremony for nurse staff members who recently earned a bachelor of science in nursing or higher degree; awards presentations to nurse staff members for clinical, service and quality excellence, and special recognition of nurses with 20 and 25 years of service.

“We appreciate the compassion you bring to our patients and the letters of compliments we get from patients and their families,” said Mount Sinai South Nassau president Adhi Sharma,

“We appreciate the challenges that you face. Our daily huddle, we hear the code great report from the day before. And we appreciate the human toll your profession takes when we hear the debriefs of tragic cases. So, on behalf of the administration and the Board of Trustees, I want to thank you for all that you do today and every day,” Sharma concluded.