Health Care `Foot Soldiers' Are Honored -- Foundation Gives Awards To Six Nurses

Patti Harris of Federal Way recently wrote a letter about Gloria Osorio - the nurse who cared for her husband, Tim, during his final bout with cancer at Virginia Mason Hospital.

``Tim and I grew to love Gloria,'' Harris wrote. ``She always hugged us every time we left to go home . . . The night Tim died, Gloria was off duty. She was by my side within half an hour . . . I will never forget Gloria for the rest of my life.

`` . . . Even though life there, at times, was pure hell, Virginia Mason still feels like my second home. I think Gloria must be an angel from heaven.''

Harris posted the letter to the hospital, where it was entered in a competition for awards to be presented to Virginia Mason nurses by the Tamaki Foundation of Seattle.

This past Friday, the first six winners were announced. Among them was Osorio, who was presented with a $5,000 check. Similar awards were presented to:

Linda Baird, short-stay surgery; Tane Allen, coronary care; Howard Newman, nephrology/urology; Elizabeth Dunphy, chest and infectious diseases, and Anne Cunha, endocrinology.

The presentations were made by Meriko Tamaki Wong, who established the foundation two years ago to honor her late parents, Job and Gertrud Tamaki. She plans to honor six more Virginia Mason nurses in 1991 and another six in 1992. The total prize money comes to $90,000.

Before and after the brief presentation ceremony, honored nurses and their families and friends exchanged hugs. A few tears were shed.

In explaining why she decided to honor nurses, Wong said that next to food and shelter, health care probably is the most important thing in the lives of most people - and the nurses are the ones they remember most.

``Nurses are under tremendous stress, on their feet all day, and their pay is certainly not as high as executives receive,'' Wong said. ``They are the foot soldiers, the ones in the trenches.

``To me, they are like a breeze in the hot summer air, a bit of warmth on a cold winter night; the people who let you know that it will be OK, that everything will be all right.''

Newman was nominated by the family of a kidney patient, Michael Barry, who died after the letter was sent. Michael had been in and out of hospitals most of his life with kidney disease.

Susan Barry wrote:

``Not only is Howard an excellent nurse but a very likable human being. Whenever Howard came in the room, Michael really cheered up and felt better. My mother-in-law said one night, `Well, I am going to go up to our hotel room now and get a good night's sleep. I don't have to worry about Mike. Howard is taking really good care of him.' ''

The family that nominated Allen noted that she was ``always available, organized, empathetic and never rushed'' in caring for a mother/grandmother who eventually died of a heart ailment.

``Perhaps two of her (Allen's) strongest traits were her compassion and her tact,'' the nominators of Allen wrote. ``It must be extremely difficult to tell a family that their loved one is dying.''

Baird was nominated by fellow workers, who wrote: ``Her great medical knowledge teaches all of those around her . . . staff and patients all gain so much from her.''

Cunha was described by a husband and wife, both of whom she nursed, as `` . . . knowledgeable and efficient, yet compassionate and caring, a rare combination indeed.''

Dunphy was lauded by the 20 staff members who signed her nomination as ``a true professional, not only in patient care but many other ways. . . .''

Mardie Rhodes, hospital spokesman, said Virginia Mason's nursing program was established in 1920 when the hospital opened. For the past 10 years, the hospital has practiced primary-care nursing, in which each patient's care is planned individually and coordinated by one registered nurse, from admission to discharge.

Wong, in an interview, said she was sick often as a child.

``I have since realized that the physician is gone after the operation,'' she said. ``The one person who shared suffering with me and helped me overcome sadness and fear was the nurse.

``Maybe this little bit of money will enable them to take off for a few days to rest up from the unselfish job they do.''