Four nurses at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital were recognized during the hospital's recent Nurses Week observation with awards noting their outstanding professional skills.

Laura Webb, operating room (OR), received the Ann Albert Perioperative Award. Kim Cobb received the C.A.R.E.S. Award. David Dunker received the Ruth Barrett Nursing Leadership Award, and Dorothy Rogers received the Dianne Tilton Maternal Child Nurse Award.

In addition, Pandora Smith-Dumas won the Nurses Week essay contest based on the topic, "As a nurse, how do you make a difference every day."

Webb, who won the Albert Award recognizing outstanding operating room nursing, has been at Moore Regional for almost two years. She received her LVN (licensed vocational nurse) in 1991 and her associate degree in nursing in 1997 from Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn. She spent 13 years in emergency room nursing before discovering the operating room.

"I took a part-time job at a same-day surgery center in Tennessee and loved it," she says. "The fast pace and learning a new kind of nursing was fun. I eventually left my full-time ER (emergency room) position of 13 years for OR nursing."

Webb is an orthopaedics OR nurse at Moore Regional. She was nominated for the Albert Award by Michelle Whitaker, a registerd nurse who described her as "an outstanding perioperative nurse who makes a difference every day, because she makes it obvious to others through her attitude that your reaction to what happens is your decision."

"It is her decision to make the best of things and keep smiling," the nomination continued.

"I did not know Ms. Albert personally," Webb says, "but I have heard so many wonderful things about her -- how compassionate, funny, giving and educated (just to name a few things) she was. She was well-respected by her fellow employees. It is such a wonderful thing to have my name added to the list of such awesome nurses."

Cobb won the C.A.R.E.S. Award for excellence in direct patient care. The award recognizes a nurse who exemplifies the C.A.R.E.S. (collaboration, advocacy, research, education and safety) model in daily nursing.

A nurse at Moore Regional for more than 14 years, Cobb became interested in the profession as a teen volunteer in hospitals in Buffalo, N.Y., and Hendersonville, N.C. She graduated from Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in nursing and worked in Moore Regional's CVT unit full or part time for 11 years before moving to the Chest Center of the Carolinas, a specialty clinic that treats diseases of the chest.

Cobb was nominated by Cindy Ward, a registered nurse whose nomination noted how she often deals with patients who have been diagnosed with cancer.

"It is a very emotional time for these patients and their families, but this nurse works diligently to ensure that the emotional and spiritual support is provided," the nomination said. "She gives 100 percent plus to all of her patients and their families."

"I was surprised and extremely touched that a staff for whom I have so much respect nominated me for this award," Cobb says. "It is an honor to be the first recipient of the C.A.R.E.S. Award."

Dunker received the Ruth Barrett Award, which recognizes outstanding nursing leadership. A charge nurse in the cardiovascular thoracic (CVT) unit, he has been an R.N. for 34 years and employed at Moore Regional for 25 years. He discovered nursing while studying history at Elon University.

"While attending Elon, I worked as a nurse's aide at Randolph Hospital," he says. "Upon graduation from Elon, I decided to go into nursing and continued working as a nurse's aide at Randolph. I graduated from Davidson County Community College in 1974 with an associate degree in nursing."

Dunker was nominated for the Barrett award by the CVT staff, whose nomination noted how he personally thanks each nurse individually with a kind word and a hug or a handshake at the end of every shift.

"In the midst of all the stress and strife, he is that daily reminder that this is still a great place to be and a great profession to be in," the nomination said.

"It was wonderful to have actually known and worked with Ms. Barrett, so it was a personal honor to have been selected," Dunker says. "I am blessed to work with kind and caring people every day, which makes me feel like this is really a team award."

Rogers, the winner of the Dianne Tilton Award, was a personal friend of the Neonatal Intensive Care nurse for whom it is named.

"Dianne was my best friend for 27 years," Rogers says. "We grew together in our neonatal experience and shared many hours together here at the hospital, outside and on the phone."

A Moore Regional nurse for 39 years, Rogers has never worked anywhere else. A diploma graduate of the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in Charlotte, she works in Moore Regional's Clarke Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

"I started on pediatrics, where I found myself being drawn to the preemie room where the 'grower feeders' were sent to us from the nursery when they had a full house," she says. "After a period of this, I was asked to come to the nursery for three months. Of course, I never left."

Rogers was nominated for the Tilton Award by Dr. Nicholas Lynn, the NICU's medical director. He calls her "the backbone of the NICU nursing staff, ready to work hard when needed and teach when necessary, but never seeking anything more than the best newborn outcome possible."

"I have strived to meet some of these attributes that Dianne had and continue each day to try to meet her expectations of a NICU nurse," she says.

Smith-Dumas, who won the nursing essay award, is a staff nurse on the hospital's fourth-floor medical unit. In her essay, she said she makes a difference as a nurse every day by being always on call.

"I have the opportunity to make a difference," her essay reads in part. "This difference can involve being a friend when a friend is needed or in making a patient laugh when that patient has lost laughter. I can also make a difference by encouraging patients to try when they have given up. In my profession, I can be friend, family and companion in the reassurance of happiness."

Linda Wallace, Moore Regional's vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer, recognized all of the award winners during Nurses Week, calling them "exemplary" nurses and noting how deserving each was of the honor.