McLeod Nurses Receive 2022 Palmette Gold Award

Statewide nurse recognition program

First Row: L to R, Erica Korenkiewicz, BSN, RN | Tommy Jean Alexander, BSN, RN, CWCN | Carol McRae, RN Adrian Gaff, MBA, BSN, RN | Michelle Whitlock, BSN, RN | Heather West, BSN, RN-BC | Laurie Sampollo, RN | Candace Norton, BSN, RN Second Row: L to R Betty Dukes, RN | Melodie Grainger, BSN, RN, WCC, OMS, DWC | Mary Ann Batten, BSN, RN | Stacey Holley, MSN, RN | Leslie Rogers, BSN, RN | Leslie Aldridge, BSN, RN | Debra Mixon, MS, RN, CPC | Jeffrey McNamee, RN

McLeod Health has announced that sixteen McLeod Registered Nurses (RN) have been selected to receive the 2022 Palmetto Gold Award. These nurses represent McLeod Regional Medical Center, McLeod Health Clarendon, McLeod Health Dillon, McLeod Health Loris, McLeod Health Seacoast and McLeod Health Carolina Forest. They join 211 former MacLeod nurses who have received this prestigious award.

Sixteen nurses from McLeod Health receiving 2022 Palmetto Gold recognition are: Leslie Aldridge, BSN, RN; Tommy Jean Alexander, BSN, RN, CWCN; Mary Ann Batten, BSN, RN; Betty Dukes, RN; Adrian Gaff, MBA, BSN, RN; Melodie Grainger, BSN, RN, WCC, OMS, DWC; Stacey Holley, MSN, RN; Erica Korenkiewicz, BSN, RN; Jeffrey McNamee, RN; Carol McRae, RN; Debra Mixon, MS, RN, CPC; Candace Norton, BSN, RN; Leslie Rogers, BSN, RN; Laurie Sampollo, RN; Heather West, BSN, RN-BC and Michelle Whitlock, BSN, RN.

The Palmetto Gold Award was created by various nursing organizations throughout South Carolina to recognize nursing excellence and support nursing education through scholarship funds.

Each year, employers from various South Carolina health care facilities nominate outstanding nurses from their organizations among the top 100 nurses honored with this prestigious award. Nominees are asked to provide evidence of professional excellence by addressing the following criteria: promoting and advancing the nursing profession; Demonstrate care and commitment to patients, families and colleagues; and demonstrating leadership by helping others grow and develop.

This is a competitive process, and usually only 100 nurses are selected from hundreds of applicants. Each year the competition for the Palmetto Gold Nurse Accreditation Program is more rigorous. A panel of six nurses from across the state will participate in a blind review process to select recipients. The nominees were not mentioned by name or position on the nomination sections viewed by the judges.

The 2022 Palmetto Gold Award recipients will be announced at the Palmetto Gold Gala on September 16 in Columbia. To support the future of nursing, proceeds from the Palmetto Gold Gala will be used to provide scholarships for every registered nursing undergraduate program in South Carolina. In the year In 2008, the Renata Lokist Graduate Nursing Scholarship was created to honor Ms. Lokist, an original Palmetto Gold committee member and leader in nursing in our region. This $2,000 scholarship is awarded annually, and since its inception, Palmetto Gold has awarded more than $477,800 in nursing scholarships.