In 2015, HCA Healthcare created the HCA Excellence in Nursing Award to honor nurses’ invaluable contributions, recognizing outstanding efforts in two categories:

Compassionate Care: A nurse who demonstrates exceptional nursing knowledge and expert skills, and consistently applies both with compassion and integrity, so that the quality of the care experience and the care outcomes are improved for patients in any clinical setting or nursing specialty.

Professional Mentoring: A nurse who advances nursing practice in any clinical setting or nursing specialty by guiding or supporting career development for individuals or groups of nurses or by advancing evidence-based nursing knowledge.

“Each year, the recipients of the HCA Excellence in Nursing Awards for Compassionate Care and Professional Mentoring exemplify characteristics of the more than 87,000 nurses at HCA Healthcare and the important work they do for our patients and for their colleagues every day,” says Jane Englebright, Chief Nurse Executive. “We are proud to recognize them for their dedication to their patients and the practice of nursing.”

Each Excellence in Nursing recipient receives a $5,000 cash gift, and a $5,000 gift to the charity of their choice.

2017 Compassionate Care Recipient
Ed Lee, BSN, RN, CEN
Medical City McKinney
McKinney, Texas

2017 Professional Mentoring Recipient
Kerri Tillquist, BSN, RN
Medical Center of Aurora
Aurora, Colorado