For the sixth consecutive year,MCMC nurses were among the exclusive group
of Oregon healthcare professionals selected to receive the March of Dimes
Nurse of the Year Award.
Each year the March of Dimes selects one outstanding nurse in each of 16
different categories of care. This year, two MCMC nurses were selected
in two categories continuing the hospital’s streak of having at
least one nurse earn the honor every year since the award program’s
inception.
This year’s honorees are: Lynn Allen, M.N., A.R.N.P., and Kathy Kahler,
R.N., M.S.N., C.H.C.A.
A member of the patient care team at MCMC’s Celilo Cancer Center,
Allen was named Advance Practice Nurse of the Year. She says she loves
visiting with her patients, discovering their personal stories, and supporting
them through one of the most difficult times in their lives.
Kahler, co-director of Visiting Health Services for MCMC, is Home Health
Nurse of the Year. The daughter of a nurse, Kahler says it is an honor
that patients allow visiting nurses into their home to care for them.
“It’s always been her mission to care for patients where they
are most comfortable — in the home,” says Visiting Health
Services’ other co-director, Marcia Medler, noting that Kahler coincidentally
won her honor during National Home Care & Hospice Month.
“I am very humbled by this honor,” Kahler says. “It’s
the team that I work with at Visiting Health Services, and my family,
that make me who I am. I look forward to growing MCMC’s Visiting
Health department in the Columbia Gorge region, where we cover seven counties
in Washington and Oregon and serve over 200 patients every day. I want
to thank the staff who cares for our patients, and also my mom for her
inspiration and support.”
Interim President/CEO Dianne Storby considers MCMC’s year-in, year-out
representation on the nursing awards list to be “an extraordinary
achievement for a hospital of our size. It is proof of the hard work and
dedication to patient care I see every day from the healthcare professionals
at MCMC. I am proud of our winners, past and present.”
An awards breakfast for all honored nurses was held in November in Portland.
The annual event brings together the Oregon and Southwest Washington healthcare
community to recognize nursing excellence and achievements in education,
innovation, leadership, research, and quality patient care.