2006 Inspired Comfort Award Grand Prize Winner — Advanced Practice Nurse Category

Nomination

Recipient:	Janet R. Orlin, RN, BSN 2006 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award Top National Winner Student Nurse Category
Job Title:	Student
Employer:	Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing Baltimore, MD
Nominated by:	Mary Terhaar, DSNc, RN

Dear Cherokee Uniforms Award Committee,

I had the pleasure and the good fortune to be the clinical instructor for the individual I know you will want to choose for this year’s Student Nurse Award. Janet Orlin is exactly the nurse we will want to care for our families and us in the years to come. She is exactly the nurse we need.

Ms. Orlin comes to her career as a nurse with impressive life experience and credentials that she will apply together with her nursing degree in the care and service of her patients and their families. Ms. Orlin is currently a junior in the traditional B.S. program in the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University. She holds an M.A. in Science Education from New York University and a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. She previously completed two years of training as a healthcare chaplain, and has worked professionally for over ten years at academic medical centers on a variety of projects in basic biomedical research.

All this education is impressive, but what is most impressive is what Ms. Orlin does with her credentials. During her clinical rotation in Labor and Delivery, she met a woman with a history of multiple-substance abuse. The woman had just miscarried and was waiting for social work to make a visit before her discharge. Janet asked to take this patient for the day. She then proceeded to give basic care to the woman, to monitor the process of involution, to teach self care post-partum, and to talk with her about her loss and her feelings. Janet remained therapeutic in a complex dialog and then communicated with social work in support of effective post-discharge intervention. The patient had the benefit of her counseling skills and her compassionate care. Janet saw that the staff was uncomfortable with the situation. She knew she had special skills that she could use to help the young woman and she took action to intervene.

Janet showed the same actively engaged, compassionate approach during her Pediatrics rotation. She is a leader within her class. She helps her classmates and the staff whenever she can. She is always researching the obscure findings she encounters in clinical and she is eager to discover the science and the creativity that nurses use to help their patients. She is an outstanding student nurse who serves as a role model for many. I know she will make an outstanding nurse in just a few short months. I hope she is at the bedsides when someone I care about needs help.

Thank you for your consideration and good luck in your work.

Mary Terhaar, DNSc, RN

Assistant Professor
School of Nursing
Johns Hopkins University

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