The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh College of Nursing and the College of Nursing Board of Visitors recognized six Wisconsin nurses at the annual Nightingale Awards ceremony held at the Oshkosh Convention Center in April.

For more than 25 years, UW Oshkosh has hosted this prestigious event to honor individuals who embody the spirit of Florence Nightingale and demonstrate excellence in nursing practice. Last year, the Board of Visitors introduced the inaugural Nurse Leader Award as a way to recognize nurses who work in mid- management, supervisory roles.

“Everyone’s life is touched by a nurse,” said Shane Carter ’02 and ’10 MSN, who served as master of ceremonies at the event. “Today, nurses do things that Florence Nightingale might never have imagined, but the legacy of Nightingale binds all nurses with a common thread: dedication and commitment to the patient above all things.”

The 2019 Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice recipients included two UW Oshkosh alumni: Jessica Rhines ’05, of the Wisconsin Resource Center; and Andrew Wolff ’14, of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin–Fox Valley.

Rhines demonstrates significant degrees of compassion and commitment as a certified correctional health professional and infection control specialist with the Wisconsin Resource Center. She is a member of the Board of Professional Nursing Practice, the Continuous Quality Improvement Committee and the Department of Corrections Infection Prevention Committee. She also is
a CPR AED and First Aid instructor.

As Wolff pursues an advanced practice nursing degree at UW Oshkosh, he works as a pediatric staff nurse at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin– Fox Valley. He has embraced the culture at Children’s Hospital and is an exemplary ambassador for the organization’s mission. For Wolff, nursing practice extends beyond the hospital through involvement in service and mission trips using his clinical skills to help communities in need.

Additional Nightingale recipients include Shane Garner, of Ripon Medical Center; Amanda Gillmeister, of Marshfield Medical Clinic; and Julie Kolonick, of Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh. Lori Cardinal, of St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, received the 2019 Nightingale Nurse Leader Award.