Only five Magnet Nurse of the Year awards were handed out recently, and one went to a Georgia resident. Emory Johns Creek Hospital heart failure coordinator, diabetes care and education specialist Anita Rich was recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center for her efforts to train health care workers worldwide.
With decades of nursing experience — DNP, RN, CHFN, CDCES and CGNC — Rich is also a senior clinical instructor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. When not establishing and maintaining inpatient and outpatient heart failure services for Emory Johns Creek or instructing at Emory University, Rich is president of Nurses Heart to Heart , a nonprofit she founded in 2010.
“She has traveled to all Mongolian provinces to train and provide equipment for nurses, midwifes, and health care workers in administering lifesaving care,” the ANCC said in a news release. “In Iraq she helped establish the Nursing and Midwifery Development Centre and has supported scholarships for women in Iraqi refugee camps to attend nursing school. Recently, she earned board certification as a Global Nurse Consultant through the International Council of Nurses (ICN), further affirming her commitment to advancing nursing practice on a global scale.”
According to the organization’s website, Nurses Heart to Heart has treated patients and trained workers during 13 trips to Mongolia, six to Iraq and one to Tanzania.
“What began as a mission to teach CPR and supply manikins to nurses in one developing country has grown to include educating nurses in multiple low- and lower-middle-income countries,” according to the website.
“We provide these nurses, community midwifes, and medical staff with education specific to the areas where they currently practice, and we help provide the basic medical supplies they need to do their work,” it states. “Our current focus prioritizes nurses and their colleagues in areas that are recovering from war and armed conflict.”
Rich received the magnet model Transformational Leadership Award for her influential work in Georgia and abroad. Vanderbilt University Emergency Department sexual assault nurse examiner and clinical nurse Katrina Brown earned the Structural Empowerment Award. Sarasota Memorial Health Care System’s Acute Pain Service advanced specialty program coordinator Diane Scheb took home the Exemplary Professional Practice Award.
Prisma Health Oconee Memorial post-anesthesia and critical care nurse Kayla Witthoeft was given the New Knowledge, Innovations and Improvements Award. Akron Children’s Hospital lead pediatric nurse practitioner Leah Rawdon was awarded for Empirical Outcomes.
The five winners represent the five parts of the magnet model.
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