MHSC Hosted Wyoming Nurses Association Southwest Region Awards Celebration

ROCK SPRINGS — Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County was honored to host the Wyoming Nurses Association Southwest Region Awards Celebration on Monday, May 8, 2023. The Award Celebration kicks off National Nurses Week and recognizes local nurses that are demonstrating leadership and excellence in healthcare in Southwest Wyoming.

The Wyoming Nurses Association (WNA) Southwest Region awarded six recipients in the following areas: Collaborative Practice, Inspiring Our Future Nurses, Excellence in the Workplace, Excellences in Leadership, Faces of our Future and Leadership in Advanced Practice Nursing. In addition, the WNA Southwest Region also awarded two scholarships to individuals looking to pursue nursing and advanced nursing degrees.

The Nursing Leadership in the Workplace was awarded to Robyn Owens, a nurse at the Family & Occupational Medicine Clinic at MHSC. This award recognizes a Registered Nurse who has developed an innovative and unique approach to nursing theory and knowledge in any practice setting. They are a role model of consistent high-quality nursing practices and have created an environment of professional autonomy and control over their nursing practice. Additional nominees were Tiffany Frey from Castle Rock Medical District, Codi Alderson from Western Wyoming Community College and MHSC and Rae Lynn Russel from MHSC.

The Nursing Leadership in Advanced Practice Nurse was awarded to an APRN who has developed an innovative and unique approach to the provision of nursing in their practice setting. They continue to provide a positive impact to patients or peers in the work setting, or for the provision of autonomous practices. This nurse is a role model for other APRNs and was awarded to Tammy Walker, CPNP-PC, PMHS-C, PMHNP-BC from MHSC Pediatric Clinic. Emily James, FNP-BC at the Obstetrics & Women's Health Clinic of MHSC was also nominated.

Julie Leavitt, from Western Wyoming Community College and MHSC, was the recipient for the Excellence in Leadership-Lighting the Way award. Leavitt has demonstrated during her career, support to the values of the Wyoming Nurses Association and the profession of nursing in the state of Wyoming. Nominees for this award also included Noreen Hove, MHSC and Barb James, from Carbon County Higher Education and Western Wyoming Community College.

The Faces of Our Future Nurses was awarded to Kaylee Laws, from MHSC for being a licensed Registered Nurse for five years or less and that has demonstrated dedication and innovation in the service or program they serve for our community. Additional nominees include Holly Blau, Maygen Stassinos and Mariah Hamblin all nurses at MHSC.

April Rogers, from Western Wyoming Community College and the Sublette Center, was awarded the Inspiring Our Future Nurses for being a nursing instructor that has been a positive influence on our future nurses of Wyoming. This award promotes our nurses by providing innovative teaching practices, instructional materials developed, new courses developed, major course improvement projects, grants or awards relating to teaching, and assessments of teaching by both students and peers. Shelby Williams, from Western Wyoming Community College and MHSC was also nominated.

The Collaborative Practice Award was given to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s Nursing Informatics Team Jodi Corley, Bethany Bettolo, Amy Magana and Megan Gilbert. This award recognizes health system or individual hospital for a collaborative project which shows an interdisciplinary approach to best practices that resulted in improved patient outcomes. Tammy Walker, CPNP-PC, PMHS-C, PMHNP-BC from MHSC Pediatric Clinic was also nominated.

The Wyoming Nurses Association Southwest Region also awarded two scholarships and the recipients are LisaBeth Magee and Brittany Ritter to continue their nursing education.