A special congratulations to the following Mission Health nurses, for being recognized as part of the 2022 Great 100 nurses for North Carolina. The award exists to recognize and honor Registered Nurses in North Carolina for their commitment to excellence and to promote a positive image of the nursing profession.
- Teressa Neill, MSN, RN
Mission Health- Blue Ridge Regional Hospital
At the beginning of Covid, team members came together to pray for staff, facility, community and healthcare family across the world. Blue Ridge Regional Hospital did not waiver in its support for patients and families. Teressa’s slogan was “no one celebrates alone and no one dies alone,” and nurses were encouraged to call her day or night to sit with dying patients. This slogan was adopted by every member of the team. Teressa event assisting staff in taking a patient “back to Italy” for their last anniversary, which included checkered tablecloths, Italian dinner music, pizza and candlelight. This leader advocated and supported Nursing Professional Governance Council for the health system since the inception. Teressa believes that nurses must have a voice, and she supports their growth professionally by demonstrating how they can own their practice. This is also shown through the national workplace excellence designation that she championed. - Betsy Powell, MSN, FNP-C, COHN-S, CEAS, BBA
Mission Health- Mission WorkWell
This excellent nurse exhibits strength of character through personal accountability and by supporting the NC Nurse Practice Act. She held providers, leaders, teams and herself accountable for practice during the pandemic at a time when flow of information changed rapidly. Betsy’s reputation led her to be asked to stand up hospital and community based COVID vaccine clinics in rural parts of the state with no public health departments. She engaged, scheduled, and oriented local university nursing, pharmacy faculty and students to vaccinate employees and the community. She evaluated student scope of practice ensuring activities and documentation performed in the clinic were aligned. She advised local and regional schools of nursing and telehealth programs regarding Covid. This nurse’s integrity and sound decision-making is fortified by her resolve to seek expert consultation to validate legal, accreditation requirements and standards to inform ethical decisions during the pandemic despite an emotional and charged culture. Betsy helped implement a new mobile application to track symptoms of exposed employees while they were at home. - Kristy Stewart, MSN, RN, ONC
Mission Health
This outstanding nurse understands how critical accurate outcomes are. She developed a reporting structure for the health system CNE and hospital CNOs for quarterly reporting. Her reputation for data integrity is beyond reproach. She is respected for high ideals even in the face of challenges. Kristy also created a new, innovative report for patient experience for nursing. This was used with a national excellence in nursing designation. She is sought out nationally to educate and present at nursing collaboratives on a regular basis. She participates in departmental meetings and always brings a sense of enthusiasm for education and quality which she has successfully married. Her work on graphing outcomes from inpatient, ambulatory and procedural areas contributed to a successful First time designation in nursing excellence for a facility in the health system. - Lisa Clark, MSN, RN, PCCN-ASC
Mission Hospital, Asheville Surgery Center
This clinical nurse received her health system’s Humanitarian Employee award for her dedication to improving the patient experience in her work setting and community. She developed
and implemented the Autistic Link Program for kids on the Autism Spectrum, which is used across the health system and was presented at a national conference. One mother said, “having my son’s needs met this way gave me peace and provided the first calm, healing environment for him.” Lisa was recognized as the “Citizen of the Week” by local news outlet for her devotion to the homeless by sewing sleeping bags, pillows, and backpacks. Materials were reused surgical instrument wrapping, resulting in cost savings for the hospital, decreasing a footprint in the landfill, and providing a water-resistant insulated option for those less fortunate. Lastly, she is committed to colleagues through her zeal for preceptorship/mentoring. One new nurse stated, “I’m not afraid when she is here to teach me. She makes me step outside my comfort zone.” - Ashley Hudson MSN, RN, CPN, NPD-BC
Mission Hospital
This nominee exemplifies moral excellence by the work she does with a local foster care agency. She volunteers her time to provide training to foster parents and staff that serve medically complicated and high-risk children in our community. The training she provides is on CPR, first aid, and safe medication administration. Ashley radiates energy, enthusiasm, and positivity in all she does and provides creative and engaging educational opportunities for our organization. She utilizes real-time data for pediatric hospital admissions across a 6-hospital division to tailor population-specific education offerings for hospitals who do not routinely provide specialty pediatric care. She has equipped nurses, physicians, and respiratory therapists through innovative simulation-based learning opportunities to provide safe and developmentally appropriate care in their local community hospitals, helping to ensure children get the same standard of care in their home communities. She has committed countless hours to support the opening of a new pediatric emergency department. During this endeavor she was ardent in ensuring that staff had the knowledge, skills, and abilities to care for pediatric emergency patients. She shows dedication to the advancement of her fellow nurses’ knowledge by going above and beyond by serving for 4 years on the planning committee for a regional Neonatal/Pediatric Spring Symposium, as well as volunteering her time to the annual Pediatric Trauma Symposium. Both of these offerings reach pediatric providers across an 18-county region. - Leah Frady, MSN, RN
Mission Hospital McDowell
This nurse promotes and advances the profession of nursing by being quite an accomplished nurse, including maintaining instructor status for many different programs. She is a PALS, BLS, and an ACLS instructor for the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association. She is a nonviolent crisis intervention instructor for the Crisis Prevention Institute. She recognized the rural nature of her facility and gained instructor status for all of these courses so that nurses at the facility would be able to attend classes onsite and not be required to travel great distances. This nurse volunteers her time to assist at local Covid vaccine clinics supporting healthcare workers and her community. She collaborated with church members to develop an emergency response team. She assisted the church by providing Heart Code classes, developing protocols, and assembling a medical bag for emergencies. Her work with the AWANA program gave her the ability to connect with local children and encourage them to continue their education. Leah supports new and current colleagues with an immeasurable amount of warmth and caring. She deeply cares for each and every person that she works with. She takes the time to hand write notes for those who may have had a difficult day or notes of celebration for those who have achieved their goals. She encourages staff to reach out anytime they have a need, day or night. She quickly integrates new team members early on by introducing them to their preceptor and team long before they arrive. She meets with new team members weekly at a minimum offering them support and mentorship. She ensures that they feel accepted and welcomed in their new role. She helps to precept new educators to their role and often travels long distances to ensure that they feel supported and not isolated. She led as co-chair of her department professional governance council so that those who are new in the role feel inspired and encouraged. In 2020, Leah won a national mentor award recognizing her for the outstanding support and encouragement she provides to the colleagues she works with. - Margo Eatmon, MSN, APRN, ACCNS-AG, OCN
Mission Hospital
Margo is unwavering in her commitment to exceptional care. She was the only bedside nurse representation on a multidisciplinary team for sepsis. She championed this initiative by collaborating with the team to develop a sepsis screening tool, created a poster and by doing audits on her unit. As a bedside nurse she co-chaired the nurse practice council for 5 years. Utilizing her expertise, she facilitated the revision of the geriatric admission history thus streamlining nursing time, and created a flu blood pressure assessment EMR.As a bedside nurse, she developed a LGBTQ sensitive care and violent injury program for staff. She advocated for this population and supported staff development resulting in staff having more confidence in caring for LGBTQ trauma patients. She presented the program and the results at the NC-NACNS annual education conference. She also collaborated on a team that developed spinal cord injury clinical guidelines after recognizing a gap in clinical care. She is Chemotherapy and Biotherapy certified, ACLS certified, and has End of Life Nursing Education Consortium Core Training. Margo has been teaching new graduate nurses who start on oncology an end-of-life care class for over five years. She learned when she was a new nurse the importance of having quality of life at the end of life and felt it her duty to continue to pass that knowledge to her new colleagues. She has a special love for helping staff feel comfortable with end of life care. - Angie Chandler, MSN, RN, ONC
Mission Hospital
Angie has a passion for teaching in all aspects of healthcare- including teaching those not working in the healthcare field. She collaborates with leaders at her church to teach a first aid course to the youth group, including hands-only CPR. She also created an emergency response committee at the church. Angie piloted and implemented team-based care units which included multidisciplinary rounding in her area, bringing the entire care team together to discuss the patient plan of care. This improved patient outcomes and increased physician and staff engagement. This nurse is a preceptor and mentor to new educators who join the hospital. She precepts and guides them through orientation at their own pace and meets their individualized needs. Angie also volunteered to lead the sharps committee in her organization. This commitment to safety led to the implementation of a new insulin syringe, which decreased nurse injuries. She led the effort to ensure that all needles used in the hospital system had a safety mechanism and she introduced new sharps containers that reduced employee safety events. Her dedication to patients and colleagues directed her to lead the initiative to schedule discharge times for patients in her area. This improved patient satisfaction, patient outcomes, and throughput. This project not only improved the patient experience, but also improved the workflow and satisfaction of the nurse. Her devotion to her colleagues shows in many ways, including her efforts each year for Ortho Nurses Day. Each year she organizes a celebration for those working in the Orthopedic, Spine, and Trauma areas to celebrate the Ortho nurse. She includes continuing education hours in this celebration to promote lifelong learning and certification.