1st Annual Awards Banquet

Our Wasatch Front Chapter was established on April 1, 2020. As such we were not able to have in person events for the first bit after organization. We decided we wanted to do an event near the anniversary of our organization and decided we wanted to do an awards banquet. On Saturday April 8th, 2023 we had our first annual awards dinner. There were three awards given for leadership, compassion, and clinical excellence. There were many wonderful nominees, and we want to honor and congratulate all of our nominees. The award recipients for each of the awards were Dave Harper for Leadership, Dalu Megwalu for Compassion, and Pam Lindsay for Clinical Excellence. Each of them was well deserving. Below is a picture of each of them receiving their awards and a small excerpt from their nominations:

Dave Harper - Leadership

“Dave's leadership was above and beyond anything I have ever witnessed in an organization. He was a personal and professional exemplar of leadership on a continual basis for everyone in the American Fork Hospital, but I personally witnessed it most in the Intensive Care Unit. On days when our patients were struggling, he would help lighten their burdens and ours by sitting and talking with them. He was one of the first to put on an N95 or PAPR if one of our COVID patients got sad or lonely. If the families couldn't understand something we had explained to them, he would help them work it out in their own way… Dave is the most amazing example of nurse leadership that I have ever witnessed, and I am grateful to have had the privilege of working with him.”

Dalu Megwalu - Compassion

“Dalu experienced several medical complications during her orientation to the Intensive Care Unit that left her in severe pain and needed significant surgical interventions. Notwithstanding this pain and surgical recovery, Dalu showed up to each of her scheduled shifts on time because she could not bear to leave her unit short staffed. Her care and compassion for her new colleagues was immediate, apparent, and brought many of us to tears. After caring for the patient population that we had become accustomed to over the past few years, seeing this kind of concern and compassion for our team and for our patients revived a lot of nurses who felt burned out and exhausted. From day one, Dalu has been a breath of fresh air in our unit and brought back the compassionate care that attracted many in our unit to the profession of nursing in the first place.”

Pam Lindsay – Clinical Excellence

“Pam demonstrates leadership and education more than any nurse I know. When I worked with Pam Lindsay on NSTU at UVH she was the epitome of best practice....basically nurse equivalent of a gold standard in human form. To this day she continues to work at what is now the UVH ICU and share her knowledge, experience, and unparalleled excellence with the nurses, doctors, and patients who come to her for help. It's said that she uses the income to take her granddaughter to Disneyland, but everyone knows that the ICU would simply cease functioning without her considerable contributions to patient safety and nursing excellence.

She has been a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses for more than 34 years, and has been certified as a CCRN (Adult) for 34 years. In that time, she has attended more than 30 national critical care conferences to learn and improve her knowledge and skills as a critical care nurse and to associate and network with critical care nurses from many areas of the world.”

We are grateful for the opportunity to work in critical care with so many amazing nurses. We were grateful for this opportunity to honor these amazing nurses and the wonderful work they have done in their careers. I’m grateful to the members of the board and their wonderful work. We look forward to seeing you at the awards dinner next year!

If you would like to see additional pictures of the event follow this link to a google photos album.