Elaine Go and Camille Fitzpatrick Named as Winners of 2014 CANP Awards
Orange County played host to CANP’s 37th Annual Educational Conference, and a pair of Orange County chapter members were honored by their peers, as Elaine Go received CANP’s 2014 Nurse Practitioner of Distinction award, and Camille Fitzpatrick was named the recipient of the Bridging Health Care Needs honor.
The honors were bestowed during the Friday night Awards Gala, a highlight of the four-day conference held March 20-23 at the Marriott Newport Beach Hotel and Spa.
Go has 38 years of nursing experience, including 30 as a nephrology nurse. When asked what she does for a living, she is known to reply “saving the world from chronic kidney disease.” She works closely with the National Kidney Foundation and has developed early stage chronic kidney disease nutrition guidelines for the St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group, for which she is also involved in developing a regional CKD management consensus for primary care physicians.
She participates on the Editorial Board of the Kidney Learning Systems of the National Kidney Foundation, helping to review educational materials and activities, and she is a public reviewer for the National Kidney Foundation in their ongoing development and revision of Clinical Practice Guidelines. She is currently co-authoring the Advanced Practice Nursing chapter in the Nephrology Nursing Core Curriculum, and is the Education Team Leader for the American Nephrology Nursing Association Advanced Practice group.
Every summer she goes back to her roots and volunteers as a dialysis nurse for Annual Kidney Camp at The Painted Turtle, providing hemodialysis treatments to children with kidney failure so that they can have one full week of fun activities while at camp.
Fitzpatrick is a Clinical Professor of Nursing Science at the University of California, Irvine. She has more than 37 years of experience as a nurse practitioner and clinician educator. She has had a particular passion for caring for the underserved her entire career, demonstrated through her work as the Medical Coordinator for the Laguna Beach Community Clinic and also in her work with the Orange County Health Department performing home visits for indigent geriatric psychiatric patients.
Most recently, Fitzpatrick has worked with the Merage Foundation to create a school based health clinic at the El Sol Academy Charter School in Santa Ana. Through this program, family members of the children attending the school were often linked for the first time to a health care system. Out of this effort came a full service clinic and Fitzpatrick was instrumental in securing an HRSA grant to develop an educational model for nursing students, which was the first nurse managed clinic in Orange County.
She has received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the UCI School of Medicine, the Gold Foundation sponsored Leonard Tow Faculty Humanism Award, and also the School of Medicine “Dean’s Award for Compassion.” She is also currently the co-chair of CANP’s Education Committee, and in that role is instrumental in planning the educational programs at the annual conference.
The Nurse Practitioner of Distinction Award specifically recognizes a CANP member who demonstrates excellence in furthering the nurse practitioner role either in legislative efforts or clinical application. The intention is to confer the highest recognition for an NP – to be recognized for excellence by their colleagues. Other 2014 nominees were Wendy Smith and Joann Trolinger.
The Bridging Health Care Needs Award recognizes nurse practitioners who are active as a catalyst for positive change in the health care system and who demonstrate the value of the care nurse practitioners provide to their patients. Terry Deane was also nominated for the 2014 award.
See the list of past winners.