Baptist East ICU earns Beacon Award for excellence


The Intensive Care Unit at Baptist Hospital East has earned the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN).

Baptist East is the first Kentucky hospital to receive the honor.

The award – previously earned by such hospitals as Duke University Hospital, Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and Tampa General Hospital – is given bi-annually to recognize the nation’s top hospital critical care units.

Critical care units that receive the Beacon Award will have exhibited high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families and healthy work environments.

"As a Beacon Award winner, your unit has been recognized for exhibiting high quality standards, for exceptional care of patients and their families and for fostering and maintaining a healthy work environment. Your unit has shown the way, setting an example that serves as a beacon for other hospital and healthcare facilities to use to navigate the rough waters of critical care nursing,” said AACN President Debbie Brinker, RN, MSN, CCRN, CCNS.

“Baptist East is honored to receive this award and be in the company of other such esteemed organizations,” said Baptist East Vice President Karen Newman, EdD, MSN, RN, CNAA. “It is a wonderful affirmation of our ICU nursing staff, the excellent care they provide to our patients and families, and the professional practice environment at Baptist Hospital East. The Beacon Award recognizes the Baptist East core nursing values of accountability, compassion, professionalism, and advocacy.”

Included in the criteria for winning a Beacon Award are innovation/excellence in recruitment and retention, education, training and mentoring, evidence-based practice and research, patient outcomes, creating and promoting healing environments, and leadership and organizational ethics.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, with 65,000 members.