Nurse Preceptor-Mentors Earn Applause, Adulation, Awards
Three UVA Health RN mentors earned 2023 "Outstanding Nursing Student Preceptor" awards while clinicians from Augusta Health and Blue Ridge Medical Center were also celebrated.
A beloved first-time surgical nurse who spent her own money to purchase an anatomical model on which her students could to practice IV insertion.
An enthusiastic clinical preceptor who made her students feel like they truly belonged in the PACU.
A "caring yet demanding" mentor who offered daily lessons to his students on disease processes and treatment pathways and served as "an inspiration for what to aspire to as a future advanced practice nurse provider."
BSN mentor and UVA Health nurse Jennifer "Jenni" Nicklyn, who works in peri-anesthesia in UVA Medical Center's surgical admission suite, PACU nurse Lyndsey Isner, and advanced practice nurse Steven Wiseman, of the neurological ICU and neurological intermediate unit at UVA Health all earned applause and adulation from their former student mentees at UVA Medical Center's Nursing Awards Ceremony May 10, 2023, as well as UVA Health nurse and system leaders, and Marianne Baernholdt, dean of UVA School of Nursing.
Part of UVA Health's celebration of National Nurses Week, the event feted nurse preceptors who were nominated by grateful students for their skill at teaching the next generation of clinicians in a way that was supportive, beneficial, and inclusive. Nicklyn, Isner and Wisemen each received the 2023 Outstanding Nursing Student Preceptor Award at the ceremony.
Each year, teams of faculty and staff at the nursing school review students' nominations of their mentor-preceptors. This year's award reviewers were assistant professor Elizabeth Taliaferro-Jones and BSN program manager Lynn Corbett; clinical instructors Tanya Thomas and Christian Simmers, as well as assistant professor Richard Ridge; and associate professor Clareen Wiencek, Shelly Smith, and assistant professor Beth Hundt.
Honorable mentions for the annual preceptor award included BSN preceptor Dawn Wilson, a nurse at Augusta Health in Fishersville, Va., and advanced practice provider mentor Ben NIssley, a clinician at Blue Ridge Medical Center. Other nominees included
- Mary Fisher, who works at INOVA Fairfax Hospital
- Mikayla Mason, who works in UVA Medical Center's labor and delivery unit
- Tanya Thomas, who works in UVA Medical Center's oncology unit, and is a clinical instructor at the School of Nursing
- Sarah Reece, who works in UVA Medical Center's Medical ICU
- Amber Campos, who works at Sentara Martha Jefferson and is a clinical instructor at the School of Nursing
- Alexus Keyser, who works in UVA Medical Center's NICU
- Laura Doshi, who works for UVA Medical Center's pediatric renal consultation service
- April Kimble, who works at UVA Medical Center's teen and young adult clinic
- Jennifer Letteri, who works at UVA Medical Center's 5 West unit
- Jason Hall, who works in UVA Medical Center's NICU
- Briana Jacobs, who works in UVA Medical Center'sNICU
- Suzanne Wentworth, who works in UVA Medical Center's labor and delivery unit, and is a clinical instructor at the School of Nursing
- Alice Thomson, a nurse in UVA Health's MICU
- Katherine Pitcher, a UVA Medical Center critical care nurse
- Constanza Perez-Bradley, who works on UVA Medical Center's 4 East unit
- Jacqueline Preston, who works in UVA Medical Center's labor and delivery unit
- Erin Smith, who works at Sentara Leigh Hospital
- Vanessa Camperlengo, MD, a psychiatrist in Abingdon, Va.
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