TO OUR READERS:

Welcome to our inaugural Florence Awards. About a year ago, my coworker Brent Theisen described an event organized by a Georgia newspaper that recognizes nurses. I had been wanting to create a way to honor medical professionals in our community, and this spurred a series of ideas. We immediately went to the think tank, and before I knew it, my whiteboard was filled with many ideas. One year later, Florence AwardsRecognizing Nurses in the Northland was born. The community would submit their nominations, and our judging committee would recognize five nurses in the Northland for the following awards:

 Empathy Award

Awarded for displaying a true understanding of another’s situation, great sense of their emotions, and an ability to understand their thoughts and feelings.

 Innovation Award

Awarded for the creation or implementation of a process or program in a related field, aiming for improvements on things such as efficiency, safety and education.

 Best Nursing Student

Awarded to a student for displaying excellent tenacity to learn, and performing community service in a related field.

 Mission Award

Awarded to an individual who has gone above and beyond the scope of their everyday duties, providing assistance to our community through volunteerism and making a difference through their expertise.

 The Florence Award Awarded to an individual who has represented and displayed strength in empathy, innovation and mission. This individual is a true leader in the field of nursing.

Once we built our official plan, Essentia Health of Duluth signed on as our supporting sponsor, and we were ready to present this to the community. On March 11, nominations opened and began pouring in. But weeks later, COVID19 hit the Northland. With Florence in its inaugural year and 76 incredible nominations submitted, I had to push forward. Since we couldn’t have an event to announce the winners, I worked closely with Briana at Footprint Promotional Advertising, our awards sponsor, on how to get the awards sent to various locations. I then asked each nominator if they could coordinate a special presentation for each of these five extraordinary nurses. Every single person was up for the challenge! This couldn’t have gone any better considering our circumstances.

Every presentation was so special, I thank all of our presenters — you went above and beyond to recognize our award recipients.

In these challenging times, I learned that we must find courage to move ahead. Get creative, work with your community, step up and make a difference. We have all been shaken by COVID-19; however, we are strong and we will prevail through these times. To the five nurses recognized for their awards, to every nurse nominated and to all of those in the field — each of you show an incredible amount of courage, bravery and strength. Thank you, everyone who nominated these amazing nurses.

In our Florence edition, you will learn about each of our award recipients, some history about Florence Nightingale, and the history of nursing. I thank each of our writers and the team who helped put this inaugural awards program together. And thank you to our sponsors who made this a reality!

Megan