Silver Cross celebrates nurses week with kindness as its theme

Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox chose “Kindness Inspires Kindness” as its theme for National Nurses Week, which started May 6 and ends May 12.

That theme has been especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, Michael Mutterer, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Silver Cross, said in a news release from the hospital.

“Our nurses became like a second family to our patients, offering comfort, holding a hand and reassuring our patients when they needed it most,” Mutterer said in the release.

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Silver Cross has 1,300 registered nurses, advanced practice nurses and certified nursing assistants who are “exceptionally skilled in patient care,” as the thousands of letters patients send to Silver Cross each year show, Mutterer said in the release.

“They’re compassionate, caring, courageous and wonderful advocates for their patients,” Mutterer said.

Another way patients show appreciation of nurses is by nominating them for a DAISY Award. For information, visit silvercross.org/contact-us/recognize-nurse.

Last year, Silver Cross blessed the hands of the nurses during National Nurses Week. But as registered nurse Danielle Newell said in a 2021 Herald-News story, “As we’re getting blessed, we’re passing this on to our patients.”

Even during the pandemic, Silver Cross did not close any units and the hospital was “staffed safely and appropriately at all times,” Debra Robbins, hospital spokesperson, said in a 2021 Herald-News story.

To address any shortages, Robbins said in the story that nurses picked up extra shifts “in high-volume areas” — the emergency department, intensive care unit, procedural care areas and general medical/surgical units — when extra help was needed.

To help support the next generation of nurses, Silver Cross partnered with the Lewis University College of Nursing and Health Sciences to provide loan repayment support up to $27,000 for Lewis nursing graduates, providing they work at Silver Cross after graduation, Robbins said in the story.