Honoring Our Heroes Nurses of the Year 2020-2021

It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. A great nurse often has commitment, compassion, grace and grit. Nurses have some of the toughest jobs around, especially now. On the front lines or behind the scenes, Scripps nurses rise to the challenge, providing care, support and quiet strength every day.

“The nurse is the first in line in the health care delivery system regardless of whether it’s inpatient, outpatient or even telehealth,” says Mary Ellen Doyle, RN, Scripps corporate vice president of nursing operations. “When you think about health care, there’s one role that’s your constant connection and that’s registered nurses.”

Each year, Scripps chooses nurses across the system as its Nurses of the Year. These health care heroes have gone above and beyond to demonstrate clinical competence, compassion, teamwork, leadership and professionalism, both in the office and out in the world. 

“They really represent the best of the best,” Doyle says.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added another layer to the already challenging job nurses have, but it has also brought out the best in them — managing personal protective equipment (PPE), working extra hours to update patient charts and even helping ailing patients say goodbye to their loved ones. Nurses across the Scripps system have adapted to change in this unprecedented time and have risen to the occasion.

“It blows my mind when we hear about these nurses and their accomplishments from their peers and coworkers,” Doyle says. “What universally amazes me is their deep sense of humility. They’re very humble about their capabilities and what they contribute, which makes them stand out even more.” 

For surgical intensive care nurse Keri Cipperoni, every day brings new experiences. They can be heartbreaking, when facilitating video chat between a dying patient and their relatives. They can be benevolent, when sitting in full PPE comforting a distraught patient. They can also be exuberant, when she receives thanks from a patient. “Getting to know my patients on a personal level despite the critical situation they’re in — that’s what I love the most,” she says. “You always want to make patients feel like they’re number-one.”

Clinical application analyst Naomi Junge recently celebrated her 20th anniversary with Scripps, though these days, like many of us, she’s working from home. The tech-savvy nurse uses her professional insight and technical acumen to engineer the clinical workflow and come up with big-picture ways to truly benefit patients. “Having been at the bedside, I can understand the impact of what we’re doing and make sure the changes we’re making make sense, are as efficient as they can be and will actually work for the nurses,” she says.

As an OB/GYN nurse supervisor, Yvonne Meneses has a career that is challenging, interesting and makes a difference in people's lives daily. From her first day overseeing the OB/GYN staff, she has been dynamic, engaged and a critical thinker. The most rewarding aspect of her job, she says, is when she can make patients, providers and staff feel supported, respected and valued. “No matter what kind of hectic, chaotic day I have, I continually push myself to be the best nurse I can be,” she says.

Erica Vargas can trace her interest in nursing back to a hospital stay in her childhood. The compassionate nurses who cared for her helped ease her fears, and one even brought another young patient to visit her and show her she was not alone. “That was the moment I knew I wanted to make a difference in someone else’s life like she did in mine,” Vargas says. “That feeling will forever stay with me.” Now, Vargas shows that same kindness to her patients, going out of her way to make them feel heard and understood.