June 1, 2006
The awards for outstanding nursing and support go to…
The UW School of Nursing honored outstanding nurses and nursing leaders at its 2006 Nurses Recognition Banquet May 11 at the W Hotel in Seattle. King County Executive Ron Sims was the featured speaker.
The banquet was held during National Nurses Week, celebrated annually May 6–12 nationwide. National Nurses Day is May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
In conjunction with 11 hospitals and health care related organizations, the program recognized faculty, researchers, hospital and clinical nurses, and volunteers, and celebrated innovations in nursing.
The school presented four Leadership Awards. One award is designated for an alumnus of the school, and in 2004 the school added three additional awards — open to anyone — to recognize the greater community’s nursing leadership in research, humanitarianism and volunteerism. The 2006 recipients are:
- Distinguished Alumni Award: Deborah L. Martin, chief executive officer and managing partner, Infection Control and Prevention Analysts, Inc., (ICPA) has made an impact in the arena of health care with her work on computer tracking tools. Since co-founding ICPA, a patient safety software company, in Austin, Texas, Martin has become a leader in the area of infectious disease control. ICPA’s products are used in more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide. Her programs for employee health and quality control have been hailed nationwide while her work in syndromic surveillance offers great potential in addressing vital issues of bioterrorism. She is a consultant for the UW School of Nursing’s infectious disease master’s program, and was a 1976 graduate of the UW School of Nursing’s master’s program.
- Distinguished Research Award: Kathryn Lee, who holds the James and Marjorie Livingston Endowed Chair in Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, is known for her contributions to the fields of women’s health and sleep research. Her studies on sleep disturbance and fatigue in women with cancer or HIV are internationally known, and she developed an instrument to measure fatigue levels that is used around the world. She is director of the Nurse Research Training Program in Symptom Management in addition to her endowed chair position, and has received multiple awards for her work and publications, including the Helen Nahm Research Lecturer Award. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing from the UW in 1977 and 1986, respectively.
- Humanitarian Award: Gretchen Schodde, founder and executive director of Harmony Hill Retreat Center, in Union, Wash., has continuously demonstrated her commitment to furthering the roles of nurse practitioners and fulfilling her calling as a nurse in the therapeutic community. In 1987 she founded Harmony Hill, a specially designed, nonprofit retreat center for individuals diagnosed with cancer. Schodde was one of the first nurse practitioners in Washington state. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1968, and master’s in nursing in 1975 from the UW.
- Outstanding Volunteer Award: Jean and Bob Reid, honorary co-chairs of the School of Nursing Campaign Advisory Board, acknowledge the excellent nursing care they each have received as a factor in their support of the school, which will enable continuing generations of nurses to provide the same level of care to others. Through their $5 million bequest to the School of Nursing in 2000 — the largest gift in the school’s history — the Reids will provide scholarship support to undergraduate and graduate students unable to afford a nursing education. Jean Reid is a 1947 graduate of the UW with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and Bob Reid earned his bachelor’s in law from the UW Law School in 1948.
Many program sponsors recognized their top nurses at the event.
For information about nominating someone for next year’s awards, contact Autumn Parramore at 206-616-9219 or pae@u.washington.edu.
