Rangely hospital presents nursing awards

RANGELY I Rangely District Hospital honored three former and current nurses with the inaugural Ruth King Excellence in Nursing Award at a pinning ceremony Saturday night.
The event, the first of its kind at RDH, recognized recipients’ lifetime service to the hospital and acknowledged the role registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nurse’s aides, nurse’s aides and ward clerks play in patient care.
“Nursing is a profession of protected moments; it is a wholly devoted style of living,” chief nursing officer and master of ceremonies Sharma Vaughn said. “It is daily devotion to alleviate pain, offer hope and change the world — or at least to change someone’s world moment by moment in all the little ways that count.”
Saturday’s ceremony highlighted the careers of Ruth King, a registered nurse who built a legacy of caring for patients in Rio Blanco County for five decades; Mary Reese, the hospital’s director of nursing for a combined decade of service, known for her blend of professionalism and compassion; and Sheryl Sheley, an RDH employee for 28 years, recognized for her work ethic and high level of patient care.
Granddaughter Jennifer Turner accepted the award for King, who passed away in 2012; daughter Erin Zak and husband Jerry Reese accepted Mary Reese’s honor. Reese passed away in 2011.
Nurses Anne Benhart, Karen Stanley and Tammy Warden spoke to the traits that made the honorees outstanding in their profession.
Benhart recalled King’s ability to offer individualized comfort to each patient and a certain warmth accompanying her actions.
Reese, Stanley said, balanced a wry sense of humor with a keen understanding of patient care and staff management.
Sheley worked as a certified nurse’s aide at RDH before earning her licensed practical nurse and registered nurse certifications. She later went on to become assistant director of nursing and director of nursing before becoming Rangely Family Medicine’s clinic manager in September.
“She never asked anything of us she wouldn’t do herself,” Warden said.
After accepting their pins, Sheley and the Reese and King family members lit the Nightingale lamp, a mark of nurses’ continued vigil over their patients. Nursing staff also wore traditional caps, representative of the nurse’s responsibility in transitioning from book knowledge to active care.
The evening included a presentation that intersected Rangely hospital history with RDH’s current offerings. At the event’s close, nurses recited the Nightingale Pledge, a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath.
Vaughn summed up the nurse’s charge, and the King recipients’ success at meeting it, in her opening words.
“The (recipients) are the heroes who taught us to make a bed, offer comfort, reason and intervene with impeccable precision, prioritize with infallible rationale, care for the dying and the dead, grieve a stranger and celebrate life,” Vaughn said.
A committee of RDH nursing staff will gather nominations for and vote on future Ruth King Excellence in Nursing Award recipients.