MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

4 HALIFAX REGIONAL NURSES RECOGNIZED
The Great 100 Nurses in NC

RROANOKE RAPIDS, NC – (July 29, 2007) —The nursing program at Halifax Regional has been honored again, this time by having four Registered Nurses selected among the Great 100 nurses in North Carolina.

Each year since 1988, 100 North Carolina nurses have been recognized for their outstanding professional ability and their contributions to improving healthcare in their communities by The Great 100, Inc., a grassroots organization in Greensboro which promotes nursing and raises funds for nursing scholarships.

The Halifax Regional nurses honored are:
• Susan Roberts Cox, RN, CNOR, operating room
• Carrie Davis, RN, BSN, CDE, patient education
• Janice Hales, RN, MICN, emergency room
• Roger St. Louis, RN, Joint Care Center

“Having four of the Great 100 nurses working at Halifax Regional is
one more indication of the quality nursing staff at the Medical Center,” said Karen Daniels, vice president of nursing. “Outstanding nurses demonstrate the ability to care for patients’ physical needs while tending to the emotional needs of patients and their families.”

Cox first joined Halifax Regional in 1997. She is a native of Roanoke Rapids who attended nursing school at Wake Community College. She has worked in Florida, Louisiana, Virginia and three other hospitals in eastern North Carolina. “I work at Halifax Regional because we offer quality patient care to our community. The operating room does that by working together as a core center for the Medical Center. Physicians, nurses, technicians and ancillary departments are all a necessary part of our team.”

Cox is considered by friends a guardian angel. “I have been trained to help people and if I can give assistance, I will, even if it means stopping on the highway during a trip,” she said. “Some people do not want to travel with me because I stop whenever I see someone who needs help, and we never arrive on time,” she joked.

Davis joined Halifax Regional in 2000 and first worked in the intensive care unit. She is a Certified Diabetes Educator and teaches persons with diabetes. “Helping patients control their blood sugar improves their quality of life,” she said. “When you know that you are making a difference in someone’s life, then you get all the reward there is.”

Having worked in large hospitals, Davis says the quality of patient care is excellent at Halifax Regional. “Bigger is not always better,” she says. “My experience is that patients are well satisfied with their care at Halifax Regional.”

After 17 years as a stay-at-home mom, Hales joined Halifax Regional in l980 as a nursing assistant. She worked to put herself through the nursing program at Halifax Community College and came to work in the emergency room in l983.

The 7 a.m. shift usually treats 75 patients in a day in the emergency room. “I like the pace,” she says. “I guess I’m a Type A personality. In the ER, you must listen and give hands-on care quickly. We make a difference in peoples lives.”

St. Louis was the manager of a plant in Canada which closed in 1993. He then went to nursing school and moved to North Carolina four years later. He came to Halifax Regional in 2000 and helped to open the Joint Care Center in 2005.

“I enjoy helping people, so I have loved nursing since the first day,” he said. “At Halifax Regional, we are patient oriented and are empowered to make decisions that help patients regain their health.”

The Great 100 Nurses will be honored at a gala in October in Greensboro.

This spring Halifax Regional was one of two hospitals in North Carolina that was recognized by the North Carolina Nurses Association for providing its nurses a healthy workplace where open communication, respect and solution-focused actions enhance a nurse’s delivery of quality care.

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