April 13, 2015 - Manisa Baker, a clinical nurse specialist in the Intensive Care Unit at Advocate South Suburban Hospital, was named a regional finalist for the 2015 Nurse.com Nursing Excellence GEM Award. The GEM (Giving Excellence Meaning) Awards program is designed to recognize and honor nurses for the extraordinary care they provide their patients.
GEM Award nominees are nominated, selected and honored by other nurses and awarded in six categories: Advancing and Leading the Profession; Education and Mentorship; Clinical Care, Inpatient; Home, Community and Ambulatory Care; Patient and Staff Management; and Volunteerism and Service.
Baker is 1 of 5 regional finalists in Education and Mentorship.
Baker was nominated for her drive for excellence in critical care nursing. Recognized for her dedication to mentoring new nurses, she led the Critical Care Education team in creating a formal post-orientation mentorship program. The extended 30-90 day program strengthens the bridge between the classroom and life as a professional nurse in order to support new graduates while ensuring patient safety. This project has provided consistent, quality education for all ICU nurses and significantly dropped the first year RN turnover rate.
Baker’s leadership and project management skills have added to other initiatives, as well. She successfully led a project to improve the rounding process, ensuring that all patients’ daily needs are met. Baker has also served as chair of the hospital’s Professional Advanced Practice Nurse Council and leads the hospital’s sepsis taskforce.
Each year, Nurse.com conducts a nationwide search for the best of the best in nursing, generating hundreds of nominations highlighting stories of excellence in leadership and management, education, volunteerism and all areas of clinical practice.
Baker will be honored at the Nurse.com Nursing Excellent GEM Awards dinner in Schaumburg, Ill. on Friday, May 8, 2015. At the event, all nominees will be honored and one nurse in each category will be named the regional winner. In late summer, national winners will be chosen from among all the regional winners nationwide.
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Media Contact
Nate Llewellyn
Director, Public Affairs & Marketing
Advocate South Suburban Hospital
nate.llewellyn@advocatehealth.com
708.213.3137 phone
708.213.0129 fax