Morristown Nurse Finalist for National Excellence Award

Denise Fochesto is pretty good at what she does.

So much so that she recently won the regional competition of Nurse.com’s prestigious GEM (Giving Excellence Meaning) award, which recognizes superior nurses in regions across the country, leading to the selection of the National Nurses of the Year.

Fochesto, an RN, MSN, APN-C, CCRN, is the unit manager of the Neuro/Surgical/ Trauma ICU, the Medical ICU, Hyperbaric Medicine Service and Nursing Resource Center at Morristown Medical Center.

According to Atlantic Health System, Fochesto has an immense amount of responsibilities.

“(Fochesto) is the driving force behind multiple quality initiatives for patients that have both improved the quality of care and measurable patient/family and staff outcomes.  Denise explains that the staff of the ICU is expected to provide service, not only to patients and families, but to their colleagues in other departments as their patients leave ICU. A grant proposal and business plan she wrote provided funds for an animal-assisted activities program to enhance healing and the experience of patients and families. She was appointed project leader for the initiative by a corporate team led by the board of trustees. The project was adopted system wide and was extended to create a center of excellence for animal-assisted therapy.”

The next phase of the competition will announce national winners in September.