Marianne Burnham demonstrates a commitment to the compassionate care of patients and families. When asked about her future nursing plans, she wrote, "My interest is to one day be a community health nurse such as education and hospice. I continue at bedside nursing due to my love for the veterans and to grow my clinical knowledge."

Marianne makes a connection to patients, families, and her peers. She is compassionate and kind in her discussion board responses. Her clinical project in Community Health Nursing is the promotion and implementation of interventions to help those in the workplace decrease stress and lead healthier lives. Marianne notes, "The goal is to create a working atmosphere that will promote health and wellness of mind, body, and spirit reducing stress and workplace burnout."

I always look forward to Marianne's posts as they are thoughtful, reflective, and supportive of her peers. She is always looking for other perspectives and is curious. Marianne is compassionate, caring, and kind to all her veteran patients and family members. Marianne understands she cannot fulfill all veteran patient needs every minute of the shift and relies on the assigned Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA) to provide the same compassionate competent basic care as she does. Recognizing how integral this individual is to her patient care for her veteran patients, Marianne researched and developed an LNA career ladder for her place of employment as her leadership capstone project. In doing so, the veteran’s home has seen an increase in LNA retention and improved patient care.

Marianne is deserving of this award because she is not only compassionate, caring, and kind with her patients, but also values and cares about the team members she works with. Marianne is the mother of 5, ages 18-30, and has been married for 31 years. Marianne became a registered nurse in 2017 while raising her family. She will be completing her BSN this spring.