Showing Love for Nurses

For many years, caregiver recognition has been an ongoing strategic priority for Cleveland Clinic’s Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence.

Our leadership team believes that recognizing nursing caregivers for their work and contributions – from providing superior inpatient or outpatient care to positively impacting communities and society – is highly important.

In fact, meaningful recognition has become part of our culture. In our experience, expressing gratitude for nursing caregivers can enhance morale, foster environments of positivity and team building, and improve engagement.

Additionally, studies have shown that meaningful recognition has the ability to renew a nurse’s commitment to their profession, bestow added pride in their work, and deepen loyalty to both nursing team and healthcare organization.

At Cleveland Clinic, we work hard to continually honor and recognize our nurses. Our dedicated nursing marketing and communications team continuously partners with members of the Zielony Nursing Institute to help devise, plan and execute recognition programs, initiatives and activities.

A closer look at Cleveland Clinic’s nurse recognition

Nurse recognition at Cleveland Clinic is year-round. At any point in time, nursing caregivers can be nominated for recognition awards, such as:

• Cleveland Clinic’s legacy Nursing Excellence Awards program, which encompasses both local hospital and enterprise-wide awards and honors more than 100 nurses annually.
• The prestigious DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, which Cleveland Clinic began offering 1, 2017, across all Cleveland Clinic health system hospitals.

Furthermore, other ongoing recognition activities include:

• Weekly “Nursing News-to-Know” eNewsletter (distributed to all nursing caregivers; features important news, events and recognition)
• Cleveland Clinic nursing intranet communications
• Recognition in daily inter-disciplinary team huddles
• Nursing unit and caregiver employee engagement recognition
• Nurse innovator recognition through Cleveland Clinic’s Office of Nursing Research and Innovations’ innovation program
• A robust Nursing Institute website
• Scheduled TV and print media advertising
• Messaging on Cleveland Clinic patient- and visitor-facing digital communication screens/TVs
• Recognition in Cleveland Clinic’s Notable Nursing publication (printed twice annually, features a bi-monthly digital edition)
• Recognition on Cleveland Clinic’s Consult QD healthcare site and social media channels
• Participation in Cleveland Magazine’s annual Faces of Care (celebrating excellence in nursing)
• National recognition at numerous annual professional conferences and events
• Ongoing promotion of ANCC Magnet® Recognition and Pathway to Excellence® Program designations

Additionally, one of the most prominent times for Cleveland Clinic nurse recognition is during National Nurses Week (May 6-12). Each year, nurses throughout the health system are honored at various events or recognized through different initiatives. Previous recognition efforts have included:

• Offering nurses the opportunity to throw the first pitch at a Cleveland Indians baseball game
• Hosting ‘Nurses Night Out’ events in partnership with a Cleveland-area radio station
• Holding local nursing award recognition ceremonies at Cleveland Clinic hospitals
• Distributing gift cards and offering daily prize drawings to nursing caregivers
• Offering professional headshot photoshoots in partnership with Cleveland Clinic’s photography department
• Promoting Cleveland Clinic’s ‘generations of nurses’ recognition program, which honors generations of nurses from the same family and caregiver celebrations program, where patients, caregivers, friends, community and family members can recognize nurses
• Hosting a contest where Cleveland Clinic nurses can design a nursing T-shirt (proceeds from T-shirt sales go to a nurse scholarship fund)

Spread the love

Recently, with the help of our marketing and media production teams, we created a special thank you video to share with Cleveland Clinic’s nursing caregivers.

The premise of the video, which featured patients, physicians and caregivers, was based on the question: “Why do you love your nurse?”

Watch below.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day and the Year of the Nurse, share how your organization shows its love for nurses!