Even though Albert was ill during the last several years of her nursing career at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, "you never heard her complain," Cook says.

Kris Owens, a registered nurse, never met Ruth Barrett, but she has heard about her from physicians and co-workers who have been around the hospital for a long time and knows that she was a "great nurse."

Cook and Owens have been recognized with Moore Regional's top nursing honors for 2006, awards named for Albert and Barrett, two outstanding nurses from the hospital's past. Cook received the Ann Albert Perioperative Nurse Award, and Owens received the Ruth Barrett Nursing Leadership Award.

"It was a real pleasure to have Susan win the Ann Albert Award," says Linda Wallace, Moore Regional's vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer. "She is truly deserving, and there is no question that Ann would be proud of her."

"Kris has been outstanding in her leadership in our Emergency Department," Wallace adds. "I am proud of the work she has done. She is very deserving of the Ruth Barrett Award."

The ENT (ear, nose and throat) Service coordinator for the operating room at Moore Regional, Cook has been a nurse at the hospital for 28 years, the last 16 in the Operating Room. A Rockingham native who now lives in Carthage, she grew up wanting to become a nurse.

"Ever since I was old enough to know what nurses were and what they did, I wanted to be one," she says.

Cook joined Moore Regional Hospital as a staff nurse on 3A after earning an associate's degree as a member of the first nursing program at Richmond Technical Institute (now Community College) in 1978. After nine years and seeking a change, she moved to Recovery and then on to the operating room, where she is an acknowledged nurse leader.

"Susan is superb when it comes to nursing judgment and critical thinking skills," says Tabitha Stewart, assistant director of surgical services. "This has a huge impact on positive patient outcomes. The OR is an ever-changing environment, and decisions must be made at a moment's notice. Susan can adapt to these ever-changing situations with great composure and definitive decision-making.

"Her knowledge of perioperative nursing is so vast that she can troubleshoot almost any situation and ensure the best possible outcomes for the patient and the surgical team."

Cook and her husband, Curtis, have been married for eight years, and she has two stepchildren and four grandchildren.

Owens grew up in Lancaster, S.C., and also knew as a child that she wanted to be a nurse. An Air Force scholarship to study engineering at N.C. State University briefly set her off on a different track, but a lifetime of observing the dedication and professionalism of her mother, a nurse and a personal role model, finally convinced her that nursing was where she should be, too.

She found a particular calling while in nursing school at Raleigh's Wake Tech. "Once I got in nursing school, I knew the ED would be my home," she says.

Owens had just a year of nursing experience under her belt when she applied for a position in the Emergency Department at Moore Regional. Nurses don't usually move so quickly into emergency care, but Dotty Kuell, a registered nurse who is the hospital's associate director of the Emergency Department, knows a good ED nurse when she sees one.

"Kris has definite management potential," Kuell says. "She accepts every assignment given and brings it to fruition without question. I call her my 'go-to woman.' She is so willing and competent that I have to keep myself in check to avoid overloading her.

"I worked with Ruth Barrett and know the thing she liked most was a self-sufficient charge nurse who could run her unit without help from others. This is exactly what Kris is, and I have no doubt Ms. Barrett and Kris would have gotten along great."

Owens, who calls herself an "adrenalin junkie" who loves the high stress and fast pace of the emergency nursing, says: "I can't imagine being anywhere else but the ED."

Married for nine years to husband Marty, Owens lives in Carthage with her family, which also includes a son, Austin, 8, and a daughter, Katelyn, 6.