2023 Wyoming Nursing Award Winners

Six nurses were recognized for their continued outstanding contributions to the profession during the 2023 Summit and Convention.  During the convention the following nominees were recognized: Bethany Betollo, RN; Melissa Cassidy, RN; Jodi Corley; Megan Gilbert, RN; Karri Harris, LPN; Geri Holden, RN; Nina Landis, RN; Kaylee Laws, RN; Julie Leavitt, RN; Jennifer Lee King, RN; Heidi Loucks, RN; Amy Magana, RN; Jessica Matthews, RN; Miranda Nelson, BSW; Robyn Owen, RN; Amanda Pontillo, RN; April Rogers, RN; Kara Turner, RN; Rita Unruh, RN; Sara Vasey, RN; and Dr. Weyer, DO.  

Award Winner Julie Leavitt, RN with Ann Marie Clevenger, DNP  

2023 Wyoming Nurses Association Excellence in Leadership Award was presented to Julie Leavitt, RN.    Julie's nomination stated that she truly believes in and demonstrates professionalism in nursing and supports the values of the Wyoming Nurses Association.  She currently holds the position of Treasurer for the Southwest Region District. She works full-time at Western Wyoming Community College and part-time at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. She is very influential to nursing students and nurses at all levels.  She has a very extensive and broad area of nursing experience. With the knowledge that she has accumulated, she is able to relate to many nurses in many different work areas. She encourages her student nurses to become involved in the Student Group of the Wyoming Nurses Association. She also assists in facilitating Student Nursing Association at WWCC. She was an actual role model and demonstrated to the students how important it is to be involved in events that affect our hospital and community. She also has a role as RN Case Manager at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. This is another perfect role for her because she is very dedicated to making sure each patient has a safe discharge home. She takes the time to get to know each of her patients personally so she can help arrange what they will need at discharge. Her knowledge base of the communities’ services and facilities is extensive and never-ending. She will spend endless hours getting to know everything available for the patients. She is eager to share this information with the other Case Managers and staff.  

2023 Wyoming Nurses Association Nursing Excellence in the Workplace was presented to Robyn Owens, RN.  Robyn has worked in long term care, home health, and spent approximately eight years working Occupational Medicine at a local company. She has been a nurse at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County (MHSC) since 2015. She currently works at MHSC in the Family Medicine and Occupational Medicine Clinics. She has shared that what she enjoys about her nursing career is the ability to work in a variety of areas and grow in each of those areas, impacting patients and forming relationships with co-workers, enjoying the day-to-day work that must be accomplished. She states that “working where I am now with a lot of people who are my closest friends and some, I consider family, has been the best.” She also has a big impact on the patients in the communities she has served and continues to serve. She states that working in Occupational Medicine has taught her a lot of different aspects of nursing, including emergency care. She serves as a preceptor and mentor to those entering the Occupational Medicine Department. This year alone, she has expanded the Occupational Medicine contracts to 16 additional contracts totaling 60 current contracts between MHSC Occupational Medicine and businesses. Of the 15 companies, six are provided 24-hour services with an additional five companies seeking 24-hour services. She continues to grow the Occupational Medicine Program and collaborates to ensure smooth sign on and continuation of services per contract agreements.  She also is a Family Medicine nurse working closely with a physician. She serves as an informal leader within the Family Medicine, Occupational Medicine, and Walk-In Clinics. She is eager to volunteer for opportunities that arise including participating in interviews for new hires, willing to orient and precept new employees, arrange orientation process and was actively involved in re-writing the orientation check-list, and continues to grow the Occupational Medicine Team to meet the needs of the Program.  She emulates a unique and innovative approach to nursing autonomously and applies it to her practice setting. She is a role model with peers as she strives to provide consistent, quality, and safe care to the patients and populations she serves.

2023 Wyoming Nurses Association Collaborative Practice Award Winner was Hot Springs Health and the champions of this project: Nina Landis, RN Quality Director, Dr. Weyer, DO- Clinic Medical Director, Miranda Nelson, BSW- Hospital Case Manager, Geri Holden, RN Care Coordinator, and Karri Harris, LPN- Nurse calls and Inbox Coordinator.  This organization undertook the development of a transitional care management quality improvement (TCM) initiative. TCM, can be described as a collaborative team-based approach that addresses the hand-off period between the inpatient setting and primary care practice. The quality initiative project utilized the Donabedian Model for evaluating care in this quality improvement initiative due to its triad framework of structure, process and outcome. STRUCTURE-The structure was utilized for TCM incorporated tools, policies and resources of the existing CCM program (chronic care management). PROCESS-The process included a multi-disciplinary team approach that began with Physician education for which the physicians at HSH were highly engaged in education and process. The Social worker/Case manager began the process through identifying Medicare patients being discharged from acute care/swing bed/or observation care and who are established patients with HSH physicians. Through her initiation the program grew by an additional 20 patients in a 2 month period. RN care coordinator received the hand off from the social worker and began communicating with the patients thru interactive phone calls to complete medication reconciliation and ensure the completion of all discharge instructions. She incorporated these patients into her ongoing patient panel. The RN coordinator in collaboration with the clinic staff, ensured the patients were seen in a timely manner and all documentation was present for the visit. The providers determined the level of complexity for the discharge period and the RN monitored the patients closely for the remaining 30 day period. OUTCOME-This quality initiative showed benefits to the patient, provider, practice and hospital. The patient benefited from receiving close monitoring post-discharge and establishing a relationship with the RN care coordinator for support during and after the 30 day discharge period. The provider benefited from a team-based approach to care ,as it allowed for effective and efficient hospital follow-up. The practice benefited, as both CCM and TCM provided reimbursement. This reimbursement could support future nursing services in the ambulatory care setting where RN leadership and assessment skills are needed as well as provide service line sustainability. The hospital benefited from decreased readmission rates. The data of the quality initiative pilot revealed that the pilot population had a lower readmission rate (14%) as compared to national average (17%).  This quality initiative was also accepted as a poster presentation for the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nurses and was presented at the April National Conference in Orlando. 

Amber James, RN with Award Winner Rita Unruh, RN  

2023 Wyoming Nurses Association Face of the Future Award for the Northwest was presented to Rita Unruh, RN.  She started her healthcare career in 2017 as a Certified Nursing Assistant at North Big Horn Health Care Center. As a CNA she aspired to become a nurse and achieved her LPN in 2020. While continuing to work at the care center she attended Northwest College to complete her RN degree, receiving her license as a RN in December of 2022. Once receiving her RN, she sought out a practice environment where she could utilize her skill set to work at the top of her license. Her desire to serve the people of her community was important to her, and due to her dedication to her organization she was presented with an opportunity to care coordination for North Big Horn Health clinic. This role affords her the opportunity to demonstrate autonomy and build long lasting relationships with patients in the program. She seamlessly transitioned her long-term care skill set into care coordination where relationships are the foundation of nursing care. Although she has only led this program for 3 months, she has demonstrated confidence and knowledge when working with physicians. This is evident by the level of interaction she has with physicians and other providers to recruit new patients and create individualized care plans and make suggestions to treatment plans to improve patient outcomes. Since assuming the leadership of this program she has assured 100% of the enrolled patients have received care coordination services every month, and has been responsible for revenue production in the clinic. Having a financially sustainable care coordination program is an asset to North Big Horn clinic as this clinic is the health care center for the vast majority of patients in Big Horn County. She has already demonstrated leadership characteristics beyond her years and we look forward to the impact she makes in the State of Wyoming. Her eagerness to take on new challenges and deliver care in new and innovative ways is commendable.

2023 Wyoming Nurses Association Southwest Region Faces of the Future Award Winner is Kaylee Laws, RN.  She graduated in 2020 from Western Wyoming Community College with her ADN. Before graduating with her RN, she was an LPN and a CNA at a local skilled nursing facility and worked during nursing school. She thrived on bettering herself and increasing her knowledge in the healthcare field. She then landed a nursing position at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County on the medical/surgical unit. She quickly learned this position and other employees flocked to her to answer questions or assist with skills. She is a natural leader, and her organizational skills are exceptional. She has a natural innovative way to present information to others, that does not undermine them. Due to her reaching for new experiences and knowledge, she is now an ICU nurse and completing her hours to Level 1 training. She is also a preceptor for Western’s nursing students. She does a great job explaining the medications, procedures, and takes the time with them to ensure that they understand the information. She has passion for the healthcare field and enjoys teaching others what she knows. She provides a positive impact on our students and shows this in her skills, knowledge, and willingness to help them grow!

Award Winner Heidi Loucks, MS, RN, CNE with Marge Christiansen, MSN, RN, CEN  

2023 Wyoming Nurses Association Inspiring Future Nurses Award ws presented to Heidi Loucks, MS, RN, CNE. Over the past 23 years at Casper College, she has had a profound influence on her students, colleagues and nursing education, locally and statewide. Through her time teaching at Casper College, she has taught on all levels of the curriculum in the classroom as well as in the clinical settings. She developed content, tests, and experiences that enhanced student understanding and application of knowledge in practice. She is currently instructing in the final semester, coordinates the clinical sites for students and preceptors and supervises their learning process. She has been an excellent emissary to the various facilities as she develops healthy relationships with staff and management to facilitate meaningful student experiences. In order to truly understand the policies and procedures as well as the patient population of a clinical site, she would often work at the facility on a PRN basis during the summer break. In this way, she was able to provide the best clinical experiences for her students. One of her most creative ideas came to life when she the developed a course that included the activity for students to compile a portfolio of their nursing experiences as they progressed through the program. This allowed for documentation of the course, program and college outcomes achieved by the student. Many students used their portfolio as part of their application for their first nursing position. This innovation was then adopted by the ReNEW Curriculum. While she is a quiet presence and always available to support student learning, she is highly respected by students as they recognize her demand for excellence and strive to reach her high expectations. Student evaluations exemplify her positive influence. One student remarked ‘’…I felt like I could go to her with any concerns or confusion with assignments and she was always willing to clear the air. I like the way she taught and I enjoyed her PowerPoints because they helped me narrow my studying down so that I could focus on the important parts of the exemplar. I also felt like she was fully present anytime I needed to talk to her.” Another noted that “Heidi performed well as a clinical instructor. I felt that her feedback on all of my paperwork was very useful and enhanced my capacity to perform better in the clinical setting. She was timely with grading and giving back assignments that were graded fairly.” Her generous support of students was also seen through her volunteering as the Student Nurses Association faculty co-sponsor for nine years. She supported their activities, fundraising events, and coordinated travel to take them to the national convention each year. Heidi has been key in developing the curriculum and maintaining accreditation for the Casper College program. She is a Certified Nurse Educator and continues to be a valuable resource for her colleagues at Casper College as well as throughout the state. Heidi was a member of the original committee responsible for developing the concept-based statewide ReNEW Curriculum and continues in that role serving on the present-day ReNEW Curriculum and Evaluation Committee. She was also the chair of the nursing department Curriculum Committee when the ReNEW curriculum was implemented at Casper College. She was able to support faculty as they began development of concept-based classroom and clinical activities. In her career, Heidi has served as an NCLEX-RN exam item writer, so was very helpful providing feedback to faculty in their development of test items for concept-based learning and the newest test plan. She is also the Assessment Technology coordinator and an ATI “super user” which enables her to assist faculty in their use and understanding of this testing site. She became an NLN CNEA and ACEN site visitor assessing and evaluating other ADN programs, and her observations have often brought thoughtful ideas for improving our program and the ReNEW curriculum. Her peers trust and admire her and appreciate that she steps forward to represent them, knowing she will stand for the best interests of both students and faculty.