Nurse of the Year Named During Annual Nightingale Benefit Concert Hosted by Cortland Memorial Foundation

On Friday evening, the Cortland Memorial Foundation held their annual Nightingale Benefit Concert at the Homer Center for the Arts. The annual event is to celebrate and recognize nurses at Guthrie. The event benefits the Memorial Foundation, who supports Guthrie Cortland Medical Center’s continuous efforts in providing high-quality, and compassionate health care. All nurses at Guthrie will be honored with one nurse presented the Nightingale Award. The award is named after Florence Nightingale, who is considered the mother of modern nursing.

X101 News spoke with Kansas Underwood, who is the Vice President of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer with Guthrie Cortland Medical Center. She said the night is a great way to celebrate and recognize a nurse within the Cortland Community who not only does her role as a nurse, but makes a difference and an impact in peoples lives in and out of the hospital.

This year’s Nightingale Award was presented to Tammy Small. Tammy works in the OB Department at Guthrie Cortland Medical Center and has been in nursing for 23 years. Underwood went on to say how Nurse Small has not only triplets, but also twins.

“Not only does [Tammy] do nursing, she’s a lactation consultant she actually does lactation coaching and counseling. She also volunteer’s her time way after the kiddos have left middle school and is still volunteering her time at the bookfair, picture day. She’s just invested in the spirit of nursing and this community.” Underwood said to X101 on how Tammy Small does so much more than just nursing.

The annual Nightingale Benefit Concert and the Nightingale Award begin the week-long recognition of National Nurses Week.