Winchester Hospital Awarded Two Honorable Mentions for Kenneth B. Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Award

Winchester, Mass. – The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center has recognized Winchester Hospital nurse Jen Darfoor, RN and the Winchester Hospital Magnet Nurses Charitable Fund with honorable mentions for its 2009 Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Award.
 
Based in Boston, the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center supports and advances compassionate health care among caregivers, patients and their families. The Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award was established in 1999 as a way to honor those Massachusetts caregivers who serve as models of commitment to compassionate care.
 
A resident of Andover, Darfoor is a critical care float pool nurse who joined Winchester Hospital in 2007. Her nomination letter described a recent situation in which a critically ill patient verbally abused her with racial epithets. Rather than acknowledging the patient’s demeaning, prejudiced comments, she continued to provide outstanding care while declining multiple offers of assistance from colleagues.
 
“I asked her why, in the face of such verbal abuse, did she continue to accept this assignment,” wrote Marlene Williamson, RN, MSN, NE-BC, director of inpatient nursing services at Winchester Hospital. “She replied she was there to nurse and to nurse all her patients. It was not her job to make value judgments as to who deserved nursing care and who did not. She hoped that if she provided the highest level of compassionate and clinically expert care that in some small way, she could impact this patient’s prejudicial position. She set an example for all of us.”
 
Established in 2006, Winchester Hospital’s Magnet Nurses Charitable Fund was founded by Williamson and Sheryl Smith, RNC to honor the rich tradition of nurses advocating for quality, compassionate care. Through a vision of nurses helping nurses, the fund allows donors to directly impact the health of the local, regional and global communities by providing funds to nurses caring for patients in areas with inadequate resources. All members of Winchester Hospital’s caregiving team – nurses, physicians, managers and other personnel – have donated to this fund, which has collected more than $60,000 since its inception.
 
Through this charitable endeavor, Winchester Hospital has funded four mobile libraries of reference materials for nurses in remote regions of Africa in partnership with the International Council of Nurses. Additionally, Winchester Hospital has provided vitamins for children in Tanzania; educational opportunities for African children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic; nurse participation in Project Smile in Guatemala; sponsorship for nurses employed at the Boston Homeless Shelter to learn how to provide best practice foot care; funding for the school teen pregnancy program in Framingham; support for New England Women of Means; and funding for Winchester Hospital’s Community Health Institute to develop childhood obesity programs and support A Caring Place in providing wigs and clothing for cancer patients. This year, the Magnet Nurses Charitable Fund donated $5,000 to Winchester Hospital and $500 for a healing garden at its Center for Cancer Care.
 
“As a community hospital, we foster a caring culture in everything we say and do,” said Kathy Schuler, vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer at Winchester Hospital. “We are proud of this honor from the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, which recognizes our extraordinary group of health care providers who demonstrate the highest level of compassion each day.”
 
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first community hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Children’s Hospital Boston, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.

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