IPSWICH, Mass. — January 25, 2021 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has announced its recipients of the EBSCO Nurse of the Year Award, Lori Chikoyak, Infection Prevention Nurse/Interim Employee Health Nurse at Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) in Bethel, Alaska, and Kerri Phillips-Smith, Breast Care Nurse/Clinical Nurse Specialist - Stomal Therapy & Wound Care, at Ramsay Health in Australia.
This award honors exemplary nurses and/or midwives with a $1,000 scholarship to be used for the continuing education opportunity of their choosing. EBSCO customers worldwide nominated nurses and/or midwives from their institutions who demonstrate the World Health Assembly’s Year of the Nurse and Midwife key directives to achieve health care for all and act as change leaders influencing improvements in health care.
Lori Chikoyak is the sole Infection Preventionist for YKHC, a small, rural hospital responsible for the health care of 20,000 Native Alaskans scattered over the YK Delta, an area the size of Oregon with extreme weather, no road system, and multiple chronic health issues. During this global pandemic, Bethel is serviced by two daily jet flights from Anchorage, bringing in hundreds of potentially infectious carriers who threaten the fragile health of its tundra ecosystem. Lori created and managed a COVID Response Team, screening and testing every incoming flight, day and night, along with testing, tracking, quarantining and monitoring thousands of potential exposures and COVID-positive individuals. She and her team have run more than 22,000 COVID tests since March 2020 with limited resources and relentless enthusiasm. During this sustained effort, she has also formulated and disseminated a flu vaccine program for the entire YK Delta, supervised the Infection Prevention guidelines of a new facility construction and opening, and served as the Interim Employee Health Nurse.
Kerri Phillips-Smith established the Breast Care Nurse role at Ramsay Health 10 years ago and during this time, has been instrumental in developing the role into an exceptional service. As a result, the service now sees approximately 350 patients each year. To promote Breast Care Service to the highest level, Kerri implemented an innovative education strategy to upskill nursing staff in the care and management of their patients, ensuring a continuous and personalized service that reaches all patients admitted at the commencement of their potential or actual diagnosis and subsequent breast cancer journey. Kerri was also recently appointed to the Clinical Nurse Specialist position in Stomal Therapy and Wound Care.
For more information on the EBSCO Year of the Nurse Award, visit https://more.ebsco.com/EBSCO-Year-of-the-Nurse-2020.html.
About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the preeminent provider of online research content and search technologies serving academic, school and public libraries; health care and medical institutions; corporations; and government agencies around the world. EBSCO’s Clinical Decisions suite of products are designed to improve patient care by providing health care professionals with the most current, evidence-based answers to clinical questions as they arise at the point of care. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc., a family owned company since 1944. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com.
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For more information, please contact:
Jessica Holmes
Communications Director
EBSCO Information Services
978-356-6500 ext. 3485
jmholmes@ebsco.com
