Penny Winnick
July 2014
Penny
Winnick
,
RN
ICU
Little Company of Mary Hospital
Evergreen Park
,
IL
United States

 

 

 

Penny has always exhibited the core values of LCMH. You always see her smile and contagious spirit always encouraging her co-workers, always ready to help. Patient and families love to have her as their nurse always going above and beyond caring about and exceeding patient outcomes.

Physicians rely on her experience and assistance. Above and beyond the excellent care, she creates a spirit in the ICU of reaching into the community. Extending the caring outside of LCMH with assistance in schools (supplies) for needy, homeless vets and food drives.

She consistently goes to her patients, co-workers and the community, as well. She provides excellent care to patients and families. Her communication skills and patient education are second to none. She works for the community along with the doctor's and co-workers collecting for veterans and catholic charities. She inspires all of us to give of ourselves and work as a team.

She truly is the heart of the department and LCMH. Not only does she have a wonderful rapport with her co-workers, but she does with her patients and families. They have come back to see her post discharge to thank her for her excellent care.

She also does a lot of charity work in the hospital's name. The donations for the homeless veterans and food bank collections, as well as the secret santa in the past for the kids.

Recently, the ICU had a patient who was a member of our religious community. She was dealing with end of life decisions. Penny offered to pray with her and organized a short prayer service with other staff members. It was truly a touching and memorable moment and one that sister told her MD was the best part of her day. She has organized Christmas toy drives for the under privileged, annual food drives for the needy, and continually collects items for homeless veterans. Her compassion and energetic spirit encourages all to participate!

She possesses not only compassion, but all of the LCMH's core values. She has mentored newly hired RNs, new grads, externs and students. She is truly a positive role model and resource person. She is an active member on committees such as Ethics, Goals of Care to Prevent Readmissions and a former Nursing Forum member. She actively engages in all performance improvement initiatives. I am sure anyone who knows her agrees with this nomination and has similar stories. She has touched many lives and is an extraordinary nurse who exhibits all of the core values. She truly deserves the DAISY award!