The Winifred Dobson Medal for Clinical and Academic Excellence in Nursing is awarded annually to recognize the graduate who best typifies the ideal clinical, academic, and behavioral characteristics of a new graduate from the Ventura College Associate Degree program in Nursing. The nursing faculty selects the nurse to receive this award based on the following criteria: a cumulative GPA of a least 3.5, consistently sensitive and compassionate to the needs of patients and families, maintains collaborative relationships with health care colleagues, demonstrates excellent clinical knowledge and skills with exceptional ability to organize time and complete assignments, exhibits professional behavior through responsibility, accountability, and appearance, and finally is considered by faculty as “the student I would most like to care for me and my family.”
This award was established in 2003 by Janet Dobson Leifur, RN, MSN, a former Ventura College Nursing Professor and a 1972 graduate of the program, and her sister, Joy Dobson Way, RN, MSN, a 1965 graduate of the program, in memory of the life and professional inspiration of their beloved Mother, Winifred Mary Amis Dobson. The Dobson Medal, modeled after the Newport (R.I.) Hospital School for Nurses Garettson Medal for Efficiency, was awarded to Mrs. Dobson in 1937 for being their most outstanding graduate. Throughout her lifetime, Mrs. Dobson was proud of being a registered nurse and especially proud that both her daughters became nurses and earned advanced degrees in nursing. Mrs. Dobson, a wonderful mother and a woman of great integrity, lived in Ventura from 1961 to 1979 and died at age 87 in Redding, California in 2002. The Ventura College Dobson Medal for Clinical and Academic Excellence in Nursing is one way her family has chosen to commemorate her life.
Award nominees from the December 2009 class are: Else Cole, Alma Garcia, Crystal Kilgore, Roberto Nunez and Jon Serrano. Nominees from the May 2010 class are: Joel Barrett, Makena Heise, Lauren Kitka and Guillerma Magana. The student selected to receive the award will be announced at the Ventura College School of Nursing’s pinning ceremony to be held on May 17 at 5:00 p.m. in the Ventura High School Auditorium. |
