Great 100 Nurses

2008

Sonya Owens
“Great 100” Nurse | 2008

Each of the last two years, Plaza Medical Center has had the distinction of placing three members of its nursing staff on the annual “Great 100 Nurses” list for North Texas.

Singled out for recognition in 2008 were Meghan Trahant, a clinical nurse-specialist with a background in critical care; Sonya Owens, team leader in the hospital’s Emergency Department Team; and Cindy Hotopp, a staff nurse assigned to the Plaza Joint Center − a unit dedicated to hip and knee repair and replacement procedures.

Plaza’s 2007 honorees included Terryl Kendricks, vice president for patient care/nursing services; Bonnie Gregory, administrative house supervisor for nursing services; and Polly Caraway, a staff nurse in the hospital’s critical care unit.

The Dallas/Fort Worth Nurse Executives and Districts 3 and 4 of the Texas Nursing Association are the sponsors of the “Great 100 Nurses” program, which salutes 100 local nurses for conspicuous excellence in the art and science of nursing. Nominees are judged on their performance in areas such as leadership, service and compassion as well as on the significance of their contributions both to the community and to the profession.

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Advance for Nurses ‘Best Nursing Team’

2008

The nurses of Plaza Medical Center’s 6 West Unit-Based Council were singled out in April 2008 as the regional winners of ADVANCE for Nurses magazine’s annual “Best Nursing Team Contest.”

The council’s 10 members include Karen Cahn, Hilda Davis, Betty Dreiling, Margaret Fink (secretary), Laura Llewellyn, Margaret Nicholas (co-chair), Karen Palmer, Mary Roberts (chair), Christina Toney and Diane Wright.

They appeared on the cover of ADVANCE for Nurses’ Texas/Louisiana Metro Edition, one of 10 regional editions the magazine publishes across the nation.

Timed to coincide with the observance of National Nurses Week, May 5-12, the recognition from ADVANCE for Nurses took into account the 6 West Unit-Based Council’s performance as measured by such key criteria as teamwork, initiative, adaptability, recruitment/retention and knowledge. Dozens of nursing teams from across the region submitted entry forms, which were evaluated by a three-judge panel.

At a private ceremony, council members were presented with an engraved plaque commemorating their first-place showing. In addition, the individual members of the team each received a framed certificate.

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Coach of the Year

2008

Each year, Plaza Medical Center recognizes a nurse who has excelled all others as a mentor to trainees trying to master the principles and practice of the Performance-Based Development System. PBDS is an assessment tool used to measure a nurse’s ability to apply book knowledge to actual situations - the skill commonly known as “critical thinking.“

The hospital’s reigning PBDS “Coach of the Year” is Hilda Davis, RN, who started out in nursing more than four decades ago in her native South Africa. Her name is repeatedly mentioned when student-nurses submit their written evaluations of the clinical training they’ve received.

“Hilda is awesome,” reads one typical comment. “She always challenges me to think more critically and it really helps me to learn.”

A member of the 6 West Unit-Based Council, recognized in April 2008 by ADVANCE for Nurses magazine as its “Best Nursing Team” in the Texas/Louisiana Metro region, Hilda also serves on Plaza’s Magnet Steering Committee.

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Texas ‘Nurse-Friendly’ Hospital

2006

Pathway to Excellence^TM

2008

Pathway to Excellence ^TM
ANCC

In 2006, Plaza Medical Center of Fort Worth emerged from a stringent review process to win designation by the Texas Nurses Association as a ‘Texas Nurse-Friendly’ Hospital.”

TNA’s ‘Nurse-Friendly’ program has since been incorporated into the ‘Pathway to Excellence^TM’ program administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

At the time of its selection, Plaza was one of just 17 Texas hospitals to have earned the three-year recognition.

It signified that Plaza’s practices, policies and culture had been found to embody 12 characteristics considered essential to the maintenance of an ideal practice environment, including:

• Autonomy and Control of Nursing Practice
• Safety of the Work Environment
• Existence of Systems to Address Patient Care Concerns
• Appropriate Orientation to the Work Setting
• Chief Nursing Officer as Member of Senior Management Team
• Opportunities for Professional Development
• Competitive Wages
• Recognition of Excellence in Performance
• Balanced Lifestyle
• Zero-Tolerance Policy for Abuse of Nurses
• Middle-Management Accountability
• Quality Initiatives

In the final step of the selection process, Plaza’s own nursing staff confirmed through a confidential, online survey that the hospital is indeed committed to its nurses, and values their contributions in its overall pursuit of safe, high-quality patient care.

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Great Women of Texas

2006

Plaza Chief Nursing Officer Terryl Kendricks was named in September 2006 by The Business Press, Fort Worth’s business weekly, as one of its “Great Women of Texas.”

She had previously received the paper’s Charles F. Tandy Mentor Award, an honor for which she was nominated by Erin Granvold, Plaza’s nurse-supervisor for neurosurgery/neurosciences.

Among the professional accomplishments taken into account by the editors of The Business Press was Ms. Kendricks’ selection in 2005 to participate in the prestigious Johnson & Johnson/Wharton Fellows Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She was also one of the principal architects of an innovative program to identify and mentor the next generation of nurse-executives at HCA, the world’s largest hospital company.

Ms. Kendricks’ community-service commitments include serving as a National Healthcare Mentor for Theta Phi Beta, an honorary sorority for African-American schoolteachers. She also holds seats on the boards of directors of the Texas Organization of Nurse Executives and the Tarrant County chapter of the American Heart Association.

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