One local nursing manager has received top honors in a Nurse.com awards program to reward nurses at the tops of their professions.
Teri Armour-Burton received the GEM award – it stands for Giving Excellence Meaning – for her patient and staff management. She is a nurse manager at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa and is studying for her doctorate in nursing at the University of San Diego.
Two others were honored as finalists in their categories – another nurse manager from Grossmont, Sheila Erickson, for volunteerism and service, and Shari Moseley of the UC San Diego Health System in La Jolla, for clinical nursing.
Armour-Burton helped lead her 4East Progressive Care Unit to a top designation in the medical field. The group won the American Association of Critical Care Nurses’ Beacon award in January.
She also applied her experience studying bed sores to write an article called “The Healthy Skin Project,” which was published in a nursing journal in June, while being closely involved with improving procedures to benefit both patients and their loved ones.
Erickson was part of the partnership with the San Diego Padres to educate fans at Petco Park about early detection of strokes. She also screens patients for stroke risk and sets aside time to mentor nursing students and encourage high school students who have shown an interest in the profession.
Moseley, a charge nurse, is credited with educating her colleagues, maintaining a bi-monthly newsletter, creating activities to unite her unit and helping with a program to offer goodbye cards for patients as they leave the hospital. She also is on panels studying studying palliative care and pain management.
Thirty finalists from throughout the state were honored at a ceremony in University City June 27.
