(4/11/2014)  McLeod Health is honored to announce that nine McLeod Registered Nurses (RN) have been selected to receive the 2014 Palmetto Gold Award.  These nurses represent McLeod Regional Medical Center, McLeod Darlington, McLeod Loris Seacoast and McLeod Dillon.  They join the ranks of the 125 McLeod nurses who have previously received this outstanding award.

The nine nurses from McLeod Health who received the 2014 Palmetto Gold recognition include: Susan Breeden, Care Manager; Earl Gleason, Behavioral Health; Melissa Herrington, Wound Care; Karen Jones, Trauma Surgical Care Unit; Ashley Keefe, Cardiology; Tammy Lowery, Pediatrics Medical Surgical; Amanda Mills, McLeod Loris Seacoast Chief Nursing Officer; Jennifer Riedy, McLeod Loris Seacoast Infection Preventionist and Wanda Scharstein, Acute Care.

The Palmetto Gold Award is a program that was started by various nursing organizations throughout South Carolina as a platform to recognize nursing, and support nursing education with scholarship funds. 

Each year, employers from across a wide variety of South Carolina health care settings nominate outstanding nurses from their organizations to be considered as one of the 100 nurses honored with this prestigious award.  The nominators are asked to provide evidence of how the nominee demonstrated excellence to the profession by addressing four areas of criteria.  Those areas include: promoting and advancing of the profession of nursing; displaying of caring and commitment to patients, families, and colleagues; demonstrating leadership by assisting others to grow and develop; and contributing to the overall outcomes in the practice.

This is a competitive process and several hundred nominations are submitted each year with only 100 being selected. The competition for the Palmetto Gold Nurse Recognition Program is becoming more stringent as the number of nominations increases. To select the 100 RNs, a team of twelve nurses from across the state participate in a blind review process.  The nominees are not referred to by name or place of employment on the nomination sections seen by the judges so they are unaware of whom they are or for which institution they work.

"Palmetto Gold is a prestigious award, showcasing the Top 100 nurses in the state," said Cindy Hyatt, Vice President of Patient Services at McLeod Loris Seacoast. "We are very proud of Amanda and Jennifer for this outstanding accomplishment and their contributions to nursing. But, our patients are the real winners for having such wonderful nurses providing their care."   

The recipients of the 2014 Palmetto Gold Award were recognized at the Palmetto Gold Gala, April 12 in Columbia. To support the future of nursing, the proceeds from the Palmetto Gold Gala, are used to provide a $1,000 scholarship to each of the approved registered nursing programs in S.C.  Since the program began in 2002, Palmetto Gold has awarded $232,000 and an endowment has been established that now exceeds $100,000.

Pictured: McLeod Loris Seacoast 2014 Palmetto Gold recipients Jennifer Riedy, left, and Amanda Mills.