Top row (L-R): Kemberly Mayer, Felix Jones, Andrea Kirsch. Bottom row (L-R): Stacey Lang, Jeff Salvatore
In just its second year, the Celebrate Caring campaign by Independence Blue Cross received more than 1,100 nominations, representing the myriad of roles that nurses play every day — including the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic — to help patients at all stages of life.
Independence announced the five winners and nine honorees during National Nurses Week, May 6-12. 6abc was there to interview three of the winners:
- Kemberly Mayer, BSN, RN. Kem’s call to nursing came after a 3rd grade accident. She is a bilingual nurse on a designated COVID-19 floor at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. “I try my best to act as, as if these are my family members, my patient are my family members,” she said.
- Stacey Lang, RN, BSN, CMSRN. Nursing wasn’t Stacey’s first profession; she spent seven years in teaching. She is works on the oncology surgical floor at Lehigh Valley Health’s Muhlenberg campus. She said: “I go to work every day and I love what i do. And then that makes it all worth it, even the bad days.”
- Jeff Salvatore, MSN, RN, CCRN-CMC. Jeff, a clinical nurse specialist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, leads a team of float nurses known as the “Swab Squad.” The Squad became an Instagram sensation during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic while testing for coronavirus infections. “Although you can’t always control the outcome and make it a happy ending, you can at least provide some comfort and relief,” he said.