HCWH Announces Nominations for Nursing Awards

December 17, 2009
Health Care Without Harm Press Release
Contact: Eileen Secrest  540-376-4495

Health Care Without Harm Announces Call for Nominations for Nursing Awards

Awards Commemorate Nursing Role in Environmentally Sustainable Health Care

Arlington, VA — Health Care Without Harm has announced a call for nominees for two major nursing awards in the field of sustainable health care. The Charlotte Brody Award is given to a nurse (RN or LPN/LVN) whose story of environmental activism and accomplishment reflects a significant contribution to environmental health. Submissions are also being accepted for the Hollie Shaner-McRae Nursing Student Essay Contest.

Both awards are sponsored by the HCWH Nurses Workgroup in conjunction with the Luminary Project, which is an effort to capture the illuminating stories of nurses' activities to improve human health by improving the health of the environment. The stories on this website (www.TheLuminaryProject.org) show how nurses are creatively and strategically addressing environmental problems and illuminating the way towards safe hospitals; communities with clean air, land and water; and children born without toxic chemicals in their bodies. The Luminary Project is the collaboration of the Nurses Workgroup of Health Care Without Harm and the nurses and nursing organizations who are the Guiding Lights and Beacons for this Project.

The awards will be presented at CleanMed, the international conference for health care sustainability, in Baltimore, MD, in May 2010.

Charlotte Brody Award: This award honors Charlotte Brody, a registered nurse and activist, who has spent her life making the world a safer place for people around the globe. She is one of the founders of HCWH. The award seeks to recognize Nurse Luminaries who go beyond everyday nursing endeavors to proactively promote and protect environmental health, and who generate significant outcomes from their efforts. Potential awardees may be nominated by a colleague or member of the public, or may be self-nominated. Nominations are due by 5 pm Eastern on February 15, 2010. At least two letters of recommendation are required, with one being written by a registered professional nurse. More information is available at www.TheLuminaryProject.org.

Hollie Shaner-McRae Nursing Student Essay Contest: Nurses play a key role in the current environmental health movement. The essay should describe a project that the nursing student is currently doing or could potentially become involved in. The essay can address a nursing student’s advocacy in the context of environmental health in the home, community or workplace. The essay must be original, not published anywhere and not written as part of any paid employment. Essays will be judged by the Guiding Lights, the advisory group of The Luminary Project. There will be a first prize and two honorable mentions. The first prize is a CleanMed registration and a subsidy for travel to receive the award. The award will be announced in March 2010 and will be presented at CleanMed in May 2010. All award winning essays will be posted on The Luminary Project website and the authors will be given full credit. Entries are due by February 15, 2010 at 5 pm Eastern. Details on the award, including information on the content of the required cover letter, are at www.TheLuminaryProject.org.

Heath Care without Harm, an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, is working to transform the health care sector, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. To learn more about HCWH's work, visit our website at www.noharm.org, our YouTube channel at HCwithoutharm, and our twitter feed at hcwithoutharm.