Local Nurse Wins National Award for Quality and Safety Efforts

Press Release:

Kim Wright

TUPELO, Miss.-The Emergency Nurses Association recently presented Kim Wright, RN, BSN, with the 2013 ENA Barbara A. Foley Quality, Safety and Injury Prevention Award.

Wright, who serves as trauma program manager for North Mississippi Medical Center, received the national award Sept. 21 at the ENA Annual Awards Gala in Nashville. A resident of Detroit, Ala., she earned her associate’s degree in nursing from Northwest Alabama Junior College in Phil Campbell, Ala., in 1993. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2008 from the University of North Alabama. She has worked in the Critical Care Unit, a local physician’s office, nursing float pool, hospitalist program and Rapid Admit Unit, and was named trauma program manager in 2010.

This award honors Wright’s efforts to improve quality and safety for area residents. She organizes seat belt checkpoints at schools and businesses, handing out Dum-Dum suckers to those not wearing seat belts and Lifesavers to those who are. As a result, the compliance rate among NMMC employees wearing seat belts has risen 11 percent.

Working with the hospital’s Emergency Medical Services staff, Wright promotes ATV safety throughout the region. Since launching this community effort two years ago, NMMC has reported a 28 percent decrease in ATV-related trauma.

Wright is an instructor for the Trauma Nurse Core Curriculum and Emergency Nurses Pediatric Course. She serves on Mississippi’s Pediatric Task Force Rules and Regulations Committee, which sets policies for the transport and care of all pediatric trauma patients statewide. She recently helped coordinate the state’s first cadaver lab and disaster training trauma conference, which was well attended by nurses, physicians, and Emergency Medical Services and fire department personnel from throughout the region. Wright involved paramedic students from Itawamba Community College in a disaster drill scenario and also made it possible for them to participate in the cadaver lab, which helped them prepare for the National Registry exam.

After noting an increase in child drowning victims, Wright organized free CPR training for community residents through Tupelo SafeSplash. Forty-seven students were trained in 2012, and the second event is planned for Oct. 26. Plans are to expand the event to include swim lessons and rescue training.

Wright is actively involved with numerous performance improvement projects in the Emergency Services Department, and educates staff on the statewide trauma alert system and destination guidelines. She is a team captain and serves on the planning committee for Project Hope, an organization that raises funds for area individuals with heart disease, cancer and diabetes. As a cancer survivor herself, she knows firsthand the financial impact these illnesses can have on a family.