Pennsauken residents Irma Beasley, BSN, RN and Linda Nguyen BSN, RN-BC, were among 22 nurses honored yesterday evening at the 2019 Nursing Excellence Awards hosted by Cooper University Health Care and The Cooper Foundation.
Beasley is a registered nurse in Cooper’s Short Procedure Unit and was presented with The Women’s Board of Cooper University Health Care Award for Excellence in Ambulatory Nursing. She has been with Cooper since 2000 and her patients and colleagues are grateful for her consistent presence and her knowledge, passion and care.
Nguyen, also a registered nurse, was the recipient of The Selma and Martin Hirsch Award for Excellence in Medical Surgical Nursing. In 2016, Nguyen was so determined to become a nurse at Cooper that she wanted in the lobby for two hour for her interview. Since then she has risen to become an influential member of the Pavilion 6 team, delivering wisdom beyond her years.
“The Nursing Excellence Awards are supported by generous donors to The Cooper Foundation to assist our winners with education and training,” said Susan Bass Levin, president and CEO, The Cooper Foundation. “We are grateful to our donors for recognizing the important role of nurses in delivering highly-skilled, compassionate care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The 2019 Nursing Excellence Awards, held during National Nurses Week, honored 22 Cooper nurses, collaborative care providers and teams for their outstanding contributions to excellence in patient care. Award winners were nominated by their colleagues for their commitment to upholding the Cooper mission “to serve, to heal, to educate.”
More than 250 guests attended the awards dinner, which was held at the Crowne Plaza in Cherry Hill. At the event, Cooper also recognized Eleanor Gaines for more than 75 years of service to Cooper. Gaines, of Haddonfield, attended Cooper Nursing School from 1941-1944 and has remained active with the Cooper Nursing Alumni Association and The Cooper Foundation Women’s Board.
“More than 1.6 million patients trust Cooper for their health care each year and our nurses are the backbone of that care,” said Anthony J. Mazzarelli, MD, JD, MBE, co-president, Cooper University Health Care. “We are grateful for the dedication of our nurses who provide a balance of expert knowledge, skill and compassion that our patients and their families have come to expect from Cooper.”
The Nursing Excellence Awards recognize exceptional professional nurses and advanced practice nurses, in the ambulatory care and inpatient setting at any Cooper University Health Care location, as well as members of the collaborative care teams that support nursing.
“Cooper nurses are not just healers and caretakers, they are teachers and mentors,” said Kevin M. O’Dowd, JD, co-president, Cooper University Health Care. “Our nurses are constantly learning and training each other, a hallmark of the profession, and something of which we are very proud.”
Cooper University Health Care is one of the largest health systems in Southern New Jersey with over 100 outpatient offices and its flagship, Cooper University Hospital located in Camden, NJ. It is the premier university hospital serving South Jersey and the Delaware Valley. Cooper University Hospital is the clinical teaching campus for Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, the only four-year allopathic medical school in South Jersey. Cooper is renowned for signature programs in cardiology, cancer, critical care, pediatrics, trauma, orthopaedics and neurosciences. Cooper is also home to the only state designated Children’s Hospital in South Jersey—The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper. Over the last decade, Cooper has transformed its Camden City neighborhood into the Cooper Health Sciences Campus. In October 2013, the new MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, a freestanding cancer center for comprehensive care, opened on the Health Sciences Campus. Cooper also continues its regional expansion with the opening of new and expanded facilities throughout Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties.
