Heart of Healthcare program honors nurses

Nurses are at the heart of health care, and the University of Kansas School of Nursing plans to honor those who go above and beyond.

The school will host its Heart of Healthcare awards ceremony Oct. 22 at the Hyatt Regency at Crown Center.

The event will honor 10 nurses throughout the state of Kansas and the Kansas City metro area who stand out.

“We always seem to have a good balance between the rural nurse and the urban nurse,” said Kari Ziblut, CMP, senior meeting and event planner for the school of nursing. “We get great support throughout the state.”

Former KU School of Nursing Dean Eleanore Sullivan, RN, PhD, FAAN, started the Heart of Healthcare program in 1989 to show the community all the amazing nurses who serve in Kansas and the metro area. The program honors nurses who work in all areas of health care.

“She started the program as a public service,” Ziblut said. “It’s a public service program that is designed to get the public involved to recognize that registered nurses are not always at the bedside.”

The program has honored nurses from assisted living facilities, schools, physician’s offices and many other health care venues.

Ziblut, who organizes the event, said she receives about 300 to 500 nominees for the award each year. Nominations can come from nurses’ patients, colleagues and friends.

Each year 10 nurses are selected as winners. The winners receive $1,000.

Nurses who are nominated have to fill out a form about themselves for the competition. Ziblut said the selection committee uses the nomination letter and form the nurses fill out about themselves to select the winner.

About 50 nominees are selected as finalists to be reviewed by the selection committee. The selection committee includes nursing leaders, previous winners and other health care employees.

Ivan Bartolome, senior vice president of the health care executive search firm FaithSearch Partners Inc., has volunteered with the Heart of Healthcare program since 1997. He has served on the selection committee in past years.

“My mother was a nurse,” Bartolome said. “I’ve seen what it’s like for the nurse who works the graveyard shift because that’s what my mother did for almost 20 years.”

Bartolome’s mother died in 1991 and he said his volunteer work with the Heart of Healthcare program is one way he honors his mother.

“I think of how proud my mother would have been that I’m doing something even these many years later to be an advocate of nursing,” Bartolome said. “Some of these nurses work really hard and I think they sometimes wonder if anybody notices.”

Bartolome said it is a challenge to select the top 10 nurses from the finalists.

“Every year it’s difficult. Every year there are so many qualified nurses who get nominated,” he said. “It just breaks your heart to try to get it down to 10.”

KU School of Nursing has hosted the Heart of Healthcare awards program every year since 1989 except in 2000 and 2009.

Ziblut said this year will be even more special because they did not have the event last year.

“People definitely missed it,” Ziblut said.

About 500 to 600 nurses attend the event each year.

Ziblut said the Heart of Healthcare program allows nurses to receive the recognition they deserve.

“Nurses just don’t get a lot of recognition for what they do,” she said. “They do amazing things and they don’t get a lot of credit for it.”

To nominate a nurse for the Heart of Healthcare award, visit www.hohcawards.com or call (800) 308-0890.

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