Auburn Memorial Hospital celebrated National Nurses Week by honoring two nurses and a patient care assistant. Sandy Rabuano, R.N.; Janet Penird, L.P.N., and Danuta Pinckney, P.C.A., were selected from a broad field of nominations submitted by their fellow employees.

Each received a gift of $100 and a dozen roses.

“Sandy Rabuano, R.N., has been a loyal employee at AMH in critical care for 21 years,” states her supervisor, Mary Mazzeo, nurse manager. “She never says no to a request or change in situation on the CCU and gives totally of herself to help problem-solve and improve patient care.”

Janet Penird, L.P.N., who works in 1 North, the psychiatric unit, “is a compassionate and caring mental health professional,” according to SanDee Simmons, R.N., one of the many colleagues who nominated her. She adds “Most often you can find Janet in the milieu with the patients, providing support, encouragement, sharing a laugh, putting her clinical knowledge into action, and most important of all, treating patients as human beings.”

In nominating Danuta Pinckney, P.C.A., Andrea Atkins, R.N. states: “It is refreshingly genuine, compassionate people like Danuta Pinckney who depict AMH's motto of ‘Caring, Close to Home.' I work alongside Danuta on the ‘famously busy' 4 Central unit and never find myself asking her to perform patient care; Danuta will already have it done!”

All AMH nurses were honored at a reception Wednesday.