Top Notch Nurses Named
Fourteen nurses from Hartford HealthCare’s East Region were named Nightingale Nurse Award winners for 2016, including three Natchaug employees.
The Nightingale Awards recognize exceptional nurses and promote the nursing profession. Recipients were honored at a dinner during National Nurses Week on May 12 at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.
Dawna Labrie
RN, Natchaug Hospital Inpatient Units
The holidays are a tough time for those on an inpatient psychiatric unit – so each year, Dawna Labrie does her best to bring some holiday cheer by delivering stockings for each client. “[Nursing] is a profession that means helping people,” she says. And whether it’s through small acts of kindness for clients, lending a hand on a short-staffed unit, or supporting a co-worker in need, being a helper is something that Labrie prides herself in.
Cheryl Armstrong
RN, Natchaug Hospital Adolescent Unit
Psychiatric nurses don’t often hear how their patients are doing after discharge, so Cheryl Armstrong was surprised when she received a Christmas card delivered to the hospital from a former adolescent patient who had been suicidal. In the note, the teenager thanked Armstrong for showing her that she had self-worth and reported that she is now looking to become a nurse herself. “It truly reinforced why I am here working with teenagers,” said Armstrong. “This is what being a nurse is all about.”
Lisa Harrison
APRN, Natchaug Hospital Medical Staff
As a child, Lisa Harrison remembers when her mother, a public health nurse, would bring her to visit patients. “I remember how happy the clients were to see us because they were lonely and homebound, and I’ve always wanted to be able to brighten people’s day by meeting their needs like that,” she said. Harrison, who is pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut School of Nursing, is also helping to inspire the next generation of nurses as a graduate assistant.