Children’s of Alabama
Nursing Excellence Awards
Purpose: The purpose of the Children’s of Alabama Nursing Excellence Award is to recognize the
distinguished commitment and leadership of nurses for the benefit of the nursing profession and the
delivery of health care at COA.
Recognition with the COA Nursing Excellence informs members of the profession, as well as
members of the health care community and the public at large, about the excellent achievements,
accomplishments and contributions of registered nurses practicing at Children’s of Alabama, based in
Birmingham, Alabama.
Criteria for nomination and selection:
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Nurse candidates must be registered nurses who are employed by Children’s of Alabama.
The candidate must demonstrate professional practice and behavior that are characteristic and
consistent with the ANA Nurses Code of Ethics, the ANA Standards of Scope and Practice,
Alabama Scope of Practice and the COA Model of Care.
The candidate must have demonstrated achievements in one or more major domains of the
profession: leadership, practice, and / or education. Practice includes direct patient care,
administration, political action and policy formation (may also be at advanced practice level).
Individual must have measurable outcome data that includes certifications, degrees,
presentations (podium and poster), active involvement on committees/task forces (must attend
meetings and complete work outside the general meetings) and outcomes from the
committee/task force, project(s) facilitated by the individual and the projects’ outcomes
(workflow improvement, patient satisfaction improvement), first or second author of a
publication, community service, active participation in professional organization (s) and other
relevant professional activities.
Have at least a Fully Proficient on their most recent annual performance score.
Award Categories:
Leadership
Practice
Education
Annual Number of Awards: One individual per category will be selected.
Procedures for Nomination: The nominations must be submitted no later than April 21, 2014.
CHILDREN’S of ALABAMA NURSING EXCELLENCE AWARDS
NOMINATION FORM
(Deadline: April 21, 2014)
Award Category (May qualify in more than one):
Leadership
_____
Practice
_____
Education
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Nominee (Name): ____________________________________ Credentials: ____________________
Address: ___________________________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip: ______________________________________________________________________
Telephone: (Home) _______________________________ (Work) ____________________________
Title/Position: ______________________________________________________________________
Nominator (Name): ___________________________________
Address: ___________________________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip: ______________________________________________________________________
Telephone: (Home) _______________________________ (Work) ____________________________
Attach/Include:
 Narrative (must be typed and no longer than 500 words in length). Narrative needs to address
staff’s accomplishments. Please list outcome data that includes certifications, degrees,
presentations (podium and poster), active involvement on committees/task forces (must attend
meetings and complete work outside the general meetings) and outcomes from the committee/task
force, project(s) facilitated by the individual and the projects’ outcomes (workflow improvement,
patient satisfaction improvement), first or second author of a publication, community service,
active participation in professional organization (s) and other relevant professional activities.
Information needs to be data driven, measurable, outcome driven and specific to the individual’s
achievements. See attached examples.
 Biographical data/curriculum vitae (preferred but optional)
 Return Completed Nomination Packet to Nursing Service Administration, 1st Floor McWane
Building, FAX to 205-638-5441, email to NurseWeekCommittee@childrensal.org, or email to
Heather Goolsby Roberts at heather.roberts@childrensal.org.
Only nominations containing the following materials will be considered: A completed nomination
form, narrative statement. Nominations are due no later than April 21. 2014.
AWARD SELECTION POLICIES
1. COA will observe a confidentiality policy regarding nominations and awards for the COA
Nursing Excellence Award.
Due to the sensitive nature of the selection process for the COA Nursing Excellence Awards,
members who serve on the selection committee will maintain confidentiality throughout the
process. Final approval and official notification of award winners will be handled by the COA
CNO or designee.
2. The judging committee shall consider only the fully completed nominee packets received on
time.
3. Entries must be typed (not handwritten) on the appropriate nomination form. Completed
nominee packets must be mailed to the correct address (or sent through inner-health system
mail) for receipt by April 21, 2014. Incomplete nominee packets or those received after the
deadline will not be considered.
4. Judging committee shall consider all complete nominee packets received on time and shall
present a report to the Chief Nurse Officer with their recommendations for accepted
individuals.
5. Recipients approved will be invited to attend the Nursing Excellence Awards for the
presentation of awards. If, because of extenuating circumstances, a recipient cannot be present,
the presentation will be in absentia.
6. Members of the COA Nursing Excellence Selection Committee are not eligible to receive the
award during the period in which the committee capacity is served, nor may they submit
nominations.
EXAMPLES of Supporting Evidence
EXAMPLE I:
Sally frequent worked with adolescents and was frequently asked by the families for
information related to _____________. She researched and discovered that there were no age
appropriate teaching tools related to her topic. The teaching aides available were written for
advanced learners and did not address the questions of her population. She organized a team to
review the evidence and to create a tool. A tool was developed that included specific
information related to the frequently asked questions, was at the appropriate reading level and
inviting to the eye. The tool was piloted on her unit and then shared with other departments.
After the tool was approved for use she then submitted it as a poster presentation to a regional
conference. From that conference she was invited to be a podium presenter at a national
conference. Following the regional conference, Sally submitted an abstract to a national nursing
magazine which was accepted. The article will be in a future publication. In addition to being
published, outside organizations have contacted Sally requesting use of her tool. Currently the
tool is being finalized and copyrighted.
EXAMPLE II:
As a new graduate, Tim noticed that he was documenting the same patient information in
different sections of the EMR. He also realized that he was asking the same questions that other
disciplines asked. Parents frequently commented that they had just answered the same question
for ________. Tim worked with the Nursing Informatics to streamline the documentation and
decrease the redundancy of the questions. With the Nursing informatics and IT, the EMR was
able to filter the response to one question to the other questions in the EMR. This led to an
increase in parental satisfaction related to the number of redundant questions being. This also
decreased the time spent documenting.
Additional examples of outcomes:
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Description of an improved workflow process where it is piloted at the department level and
then shared with the other departments.
Change in workflow process that was submitted and accepted for publication.
Development of a workflow process template that was or will be used by several areas.
Requested to speak at national conferences
Submission and acceptance of podium or poster presentations at a conference.
Member of a task force that works with other hospitals to develop teaching tools for patients
and families
Works with CHA/NACHRI as a subject matter expert to review and revise courses that are
used nationally
Member of a national committee/task force that develops policies/procedures for a specific
disease
A change in process decreased the incidence of _________________ by 20%.
Delay in patient discharges were decreased by 30% by implementing _________________.
 Development of a research question, submission of IRB papers and approval from IRB to
gather data related to the use of __________________. The data supported the change in
process by decreasing / increasing the _______ satisfaction by ________%.