New Award Recognizes Outstanding Nursing Care
For Aurika Savickaite, nursing is not just a job in which she tends to patients' physical needs. Instead, Savickaite, RN, BSN, CCRN, tries to learn as much as she can about her patients and their families so that she is welcome in their lives and can better help them, even asking family members to bring in pictures of the patient before they became sick so she can understand what brings them joy.
"I try to get the best connection with the patient and family so I can assess more than just the patient's medical condition," Savickaite said. "I try to see the patient as a whole person. As nurses, we are just visitors in patients' lives — I want patients to trust me so they can tell me the best ways to fix their problems."
It's Savickaite's dedication to her craft and outstanding service that earned her the first Mark and Nanciann Huening Award for Excellence in Medical Intensive Care Nursing in December 2009. The award, established that year, was conceived by the Huenings while Mark fought a long battle with multiple sclerosis. Mark, who became a patient at the Medical Center in 1991, along with his wife Nanciann, believed he received care that was above and beyond any care he had experienced at other hospitals.
"I met Mark and Nanciann during their first visit to the MICU," Savickaite says. "They are the heroes of today's world — the way they live, the way they enjoyed life, even despite the challenges of such a serious illness."
"Mark and I were incredibly grateful to the entire team that cared for him, and we wanted to highlight the nurses for the wonderful care we both received at the University of Chicago," Nanciann Huening said. "Bedside nurses often go unheralded, but Mark and I were determined that for the MICU nurses that would not be the case. Sometimes the nurses' efforts just took my breath away."
The Huening Award has been presented twice since Mark passed away in spring 2009, with the first going to Savickaite. The second winner, Yukiko Craig RN, BSN, was named in May 2010 to coincide with National Nurses Week. From this point forward, the committee will name the winner on an annual basis each May. The Mark and Nanciann Huening Award will be used at the discretion of the pulmonary critical care section chief, but the family has requested that funds are designated for an annual nursing award.
"I remember the award ceremony like it happened yesterday," said Savickaite. "It was so emotional. There are so many wonderful nurses in the unit that I didn't think it was going to be me. Then, when they announced my name, I was shocked – in a good way."
Nurses nominate their peers for the award, and a selection committee chooses the winner based on a number of criteria, including how the candidate demonstrates care and compassion to the patient and family, as well as exemplifies excellence in nursing practice. The winner should also serve as a role model to others and contribute to a professional practice environment, according to Anne Pohlman, RN, MSN, CCRN, APN, a clinical nurse specialist who is part of the selection committee and worked with Nanciann Huening to create the award.
Other members of the selection committee include Kelli Hodges, RN, BSN, patient care manager for MICU and the cardiac ICU, and John Kress, MD, director of the MICU. The committee also consults previous winners in choosing subsequent awardees.
"There are many people who never have the opportunity to make an impact like this, and then to be chosen as one who has excelled is a tremendous honor," Kress said.
In addition to a recognition ceremony and brunch in the winner's honor, each awardee receives $1,000 and is named on a plaque in the MICU. Nanciann Huening chose a quotation from Helen Keller that is inscribed on the plaque. It reads: "When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or in the life of another."
"Mark had many miracles along the way and some were from the extraordinary efforts of his entire medical team," Huening said. "We came to the University of Chicago for the expertise they provided, and we stayed because of the outstanding care that we received."
