Meagan Pike and Joyce DeGennaro each received a Florida Hospital Mission of Excellence Award at the College of Nursing‘s traditional recognition ceremony on Friday, August 7.
Kim Kelly, patient safety officer at Florida Hospital for Children, presented Pike and DeGennaro with their awards.
Pike was honored for regularly going above and beyond care issues in the clinical setting. She always keeps a positive attitude while maintaining a professional demeanor, and has a “chin-up” approach toward adversity in the workplace. She is an advocate for her patients and their families, is compassionate, bright, and willing to do more than required.
Pike has been involved in a peer-learning program that has enabled her to apply her pharmacologic knowledge and skills to help teach others in the clinical setting. During a recent clinical rotation, she was able to identify that a patient’s orders had been changed and that this change was causing the client’s condition to worsen. Pike worked in conjunction with the primary nurse to share her findings, called the physician and ultimately, the patient was treated successfully and transferred out of intensive care.
DeGennaro was honored for her work in the community and as an active member of the Student Nurses Association. She participated in the fall 2008 Florida Student Nurses Association convention, as well as in several community outreach activities including serving dinners at the Ronald McDonald House.
As part of her academic study, DeGennaro was certified by the American Lung Association and helped deliver a smoking cessation intervention to clients in a women’s substance abuse residency unit. She demonstrated her effective communication skills and excelled in scholarship, demonstrated by her Honors in the Major thesis. And DeGennaro consistently applies her knowledge of nursing to provide kind, compassionate, and competent nursing care to her clients.
Pike and DeGennaro both received their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees from UCF on Saturday, August 8. They are now studying for the National Council Licensure Examination to become licensed, registered nurses.