Deptford residents Alexa Barile, BSN, RN and Michael Colona, RN, were among 22 nurses honored on Tuesday, May 7 at the 2019 Nursing Excellence Awards hosted by Cooper University Health Care and The Cooper Foundation.
Barile is a registered nurse in Cooper’s Emergency Department and was presented with The Lynn Nelson Award for Excellence in Emergency Nursing. She joined Cooper in 2017 and is the ultimate team player, consistently going out of her way to talk to each patient during their stay in the Emergency Department.
Colona, a registered nurse in the Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit, was recipient of The Barbara and Jack Tarditi Award for Excellence in Nursing Mentorship. With Cooper since 2005, Colona is a favorite preceptor for new nurses in the trauma unit.
“The Nursing Excellence Awards are supported by generous donors to The Cooper Foundation to assist our winners with education and training,” said Susan Bass Levin, President and CEO, The Cooper Foundation. “We are grateful to our donors for recognizing the important role of nurses in delivering highly-skilled, compassionate care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The 2019 Nursing Excellence Awards, held during National Nurses Week, honored 22 Cooper nurses, collaborative care providers and teams for their outstanding contributions to excellence in patient care. Award winners were nominated by their colleagues for their commitment to upholding the Cooper mission “to serve, to heal, to educate.”
More than 250 guests attended the awards dinner, which was held at the Crowne Plaza in Cherry Hill. At the event, Cooper also recognized Eleanor Gaines for more than 75 years of service to Cooper. Gaines, of Haddonfield, attended Cooper Nursing School from 1941 to 1944 and has remained active with the Cooper Nursing Alumni Association and The Cooper Foundation Women’s Board.
“More than 1.6 million patients trust Cooper for their health care each year and our nurses are the backbone of that care,” said Anthony J. Mazzarelli, MD, JD, MBE, Co-President, Cooper University Health Care. “We are grateful for the dedication of our nurses who provide a balance of expert knowledge, skill and compassion that our patients and their families have come to expect from Cooper.”
The Nursing Excellence Awards recognize exceptional professional nurses and advanced practice nurses, in the ambulatory care and inpatient setting at any Cooper University Health Care location, as well as members of the collaborative care teams that support nursing.
“Cooper nurses are not just healers and caretakers, they are teachers and mentors,” said Kevin M. O’Dowd, JD, Co-President, Cooper University Health Care. “Our nurses are constantly learning and training each other, a hallmark of the profession, and something of which we are very proud.”
