VI. HEART of NURSING AWARD
In 2002, this award was bestowed upon Barbara McGinnis RN for her tireless work in Boston providing shelter and medical care to the City's homeless. Ms. McGinniss is an exemplary individual serving as a client and community advocate. We are pleased to have her as a member of our Chapter.
In 2001, Theta Alpha Chapter awarded Karen Daley MPH RN this honor for her professionalism and strength as the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association serving her term from October of 1997 to December of 2000. As the 34th President in the MNA's 99 year history, Daley brought more than two decades of service to the MNA and 25 years of nursing experience to her position as president. Since resigning her position as MNA president, she has become the first president of a new nursing organization in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses (MARN). Daley holds a diploma in nursing from Curry College and a Masters of Public Helath degree from Boston University School of Public Health.
Karen spent her entire nursing career as a front-line caregiver and staff nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston where she began her career in 1973. Until January 1999, when she left clinical practice due to a needlestick injury that resulted in her infection with both HIV and hepatitis C, Daley served as a senior staff nurse in the B&W's emergency department. Since that time, while continuing her role as MNA president, she has become actively engaged on a state and national level as an advocate for legislation to mandate use of safer needle devices in healthcare settings. Over the past two years, Daley has traveled nationally and internationally to campaign for the Safe Needle Act. In recognition of her role as an advocate for nurses' safety, she was among those invited to the Oval Office to witness President Clinton sign the "Needlestick Safety Prevention Act"" into law on November 6, 2000.
Inaddition to her work as a practicing nurse and nurse advocate, Daley is an experienced nurse researcher and an accomplished writer and journalist. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Journal of Nursing and a contributing editor for the Journal of Emergency Nursing.
Year 2000, this award was bestowed upon Edna Phifer, graduating UMASS Boston nursing student.
CRITERIA: This award may be granted to Non-Sigma Theta Tau members
A. Recognition of a nurse or student nurse, who through mentoring, teaching, writing, or by example, demonstrates the love (caring), courage, and the honor involved in being a nurse.
B. The behavior of this individual stimulates increased awareness, personal assessment/reassessment of the above characteristics in others in clinical practice.