Aberdeen Nurse Wins Top Clinical Honors

The New Jersey State Nurses Association’s foundation—the Institute for Nursing—recently announced that Aberdeen resident Stephanie Esposito won a C.A.R.E.S. Award for Nursing Excellence.

The prestigious award is based on five categories that spell out the award: C – Clinical Practice; A – Administration; R – Research; E – Education; and S – Support.

“Their commitment to nursing and health care through the care of people is a tribute to our professional founders and an inspiration to the next generation of nurses,” said NJSNA President Sandra Foley, DNP, MSN, RN. “Today’s award winners are the next class of leaders in our profession.”

Esposito, who lives in the Cliffwood section, is a board-certified critical care nurse at Raritan Bay Medical Center, who is pursuing the MSN in Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner. She looks for ways to create a positive impact. When the ICU census went down post-pandemic, she was the first to volunteer to be cross trained in cardiac catheterization lab and interventional radiology to alleviate the burden of overworked staff in other units. She volunteered to go on medical missions in Hungary and Jordan and continues to serve the Colts Neck community church as a youth leader and Sunday School teacher. She volunteered to research and document a submission to American Association of Critical Care Nurse’s Gold Level Beacon award, which will be presented at the national conference this month. As an innovator, she created the “Little Star” initiative, which stems from the hospital’s practice of playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” overhead when a baby is born. The initiative involves the maternity educator to attend ICU unit huddles and advise on the needs of critically ill maternity patients.

“Stephanie is every nurse leader’s dream as an employee,” wrote Kimberly Oquendo in her nomination. “Stephanie is unstoppable; she is the future of nursing.”