Inpatient Unit is First in D.C. to Earn National Award for Medical/Surgical Excellence

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s C6-2 inpatient medical/surgical unit recently became the first hospital in the District of Columbia and the 22nd in the United States to receive the prestigious AMSN PRISM Award. This award recognizes only those medical/surgical units that consistently demonstrate exceptional nursing practice, effective leadership, a healthy practice environment and evidence-based, positive clinical outcomes.

Co-sponsored by the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) and the Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Board (MSNCB), the PRISM Award stands for “Premier Recognition In the Specialty of Med-Surg.”

In a special celebration to present the staff of the C6-2 unit with the award, President of the MSNCB Mimi Haskins, DNP, RN, CNS, CMSRN remarked, “I am thrilled to announce the newest recipient of the AMSN PRISM Award, which is the C6-2 med/surg unit here at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital – congratulations! C6-2 really and truly embodies what the PRISM Award stands for: strong leadership in collaborative governance, effective nurse training and professional empowerment. After our peer reviewers from around the country conducted their assessment of your unit, their remarks were great and I’m proud to say you got straight A’s! They were particularly impressed with your injury prevention strategies, your excellent recruitment and retention practices, as well as your robust use of data and strong professional collaboration in assuring high quality care.”

According to the AMSN, there are more than 600,000 medical-surgical nurses practicing in the United States today, making them the single largest group of specialty nurses working in hospital settings. Med-surg nurses oversee a broad spectrum of patient care responsibilities, which inspired the acronym “PRISM” to be chosen as the name for the award.

“It’s a great honor and privilege for me to be here with our nurses from C6-2 as they receive the PRISM Award,” said MedStar Georgetown’s Chief Nursing Officer Eileen Ferrell, MS, BSN, RN. “To put this in perspective, there are about 5,000 hospitals in the United States with many, many more med/surg units. To be one of only 22 recognized with this award is quite remarkable. I believe that the work C6-2 does on a daily basis is just extraordinary. This team, lead by Cindy Minetree, exudes excellence, compassion and professionalism as they care for a very diverse and complicated patient population. Congratulations to the entire team on C6-2!”

Haskins echoed Ferrell’s remarks and noted that to be exceptional as a nurse, it takes a high level of professional dedicated to one’s individual practice, but in order to achieve and sustain outstanding patient outcomes and high staff satisfaction, it takes a dynamic, energetic and committed group of professionals who work as a team.

“As a team on C6-2, we are a premier unit and it is an honor to a part of this group that is so committed to our patients and co-workers,” said C6-2 Clinical Manager Cynthia Minetree, MSN, RN, NE-BC upon receiving the award. “We have the honor of being supported by so many other great teams throughout our organization as we take care of our patients and strengthen our staff satisfaction. While we always strive to do better for our patients, families and each other, this award will inspire us even more to continue improving patient outcomes and our overall professional practice.”