Rooted in Strength Scholarship Winner -

Karen McDaniel!

Happy Nurses Week!
Congratulations to Karen McDaniel for winning the Rooted in Strength Scholarship!

In honor of the bedside nurses who are Caring for the Heart of Florida and the current AACN national theme of “Rooted in Strength,” the Metropolitan Orlando Chapter of AACN offered two "Rooted in Strength" scholarships. Each scholarship covers the cost of both AACN (national) and MOC (local) membership dues for one year (value of $103).
The scholarships are being awarded to two people:
1) A bedside nurse who is not a current AACN/MOC member
2) A current AACN/MOC member who nominated the winning bedside nurse.

MOC president Kate Dorminy nominated her and her submission was selected as the winner in a blind survey voted on by the MOC board.

Both Karen and Kate will be awarded memberships to AACN and MOC.

Here’s what Kate has to say about Karen:
“Karen is an exceptional nurse for many reasons. Throughout her 8 years in nursing, she has dedicated herself in the critical care setting in various roles: certified (CCRN) bedside nurse, nurse practice council, preceptor, relief charge, and Nurse Educator. Karen loves her unit on the MSICU. She is dedicated to their collective positive culture and success, and her management team considers Karen a valuable part of their team.
Obviously the past 2 years have been a challenging time for nurses. Thankfully Karen has been able to maintain her passion for nursing and positive personality. Her resilience alone has positioned herself as a role model on her unit during the most dire of times on the dedicated COVID unit and so the unit appreciates Karen’s ability to keep them ‘rooted in strength’. Because of her strength Karen was selected to be a member of the ‘Green Team’ focusing her time as a pandemic response system within her hospital. The new nurses on her unit especially have benefitted from Karen’s welcoming spirit and love for teaching.

During the pandemic Karen thrived in many ways. She maintained her bedside nurse position, while also fulfilling the role as co-chair of her unit and hospital shared governance council. She mentors students as a nursing alumni, but also finished her MSN in Nursing Education and a certificate in Healthcare Simulation at the University of Central Florida. She also began teaching nursing students and has been innovative in how she helps future nurses understand their role and impact. To anticipate their needs and knowing that many of the new nurses in her unit struggled with death, Karen dedicated their last clinical day to end of life and all the processes associated from end of life care, to TransLife, to the morgue. She creatively called it “End of life/End of clinical day.” This demonstrates how Karen has the unique ability to take something that is challenging and complex and make it simple and enjoyable to learn about. Her students speak highly of her, and validate that they are better for their time under her guidance.
Considering that all of Karen’s critical care expertise has been dedicated within Orlando, and on the same unit and hospital even during and now after a pandemic with obvious incentives to leave with travel contracts to me shows her loyalty and her passion for “Caring for the Heart of Florida."