Gainesville resident receives BRMC Servant’s Heart Award


James Dabney, center, was presented with the Servant’s Heart Award, the highest honor presented each year during Nurses’ Week at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Arkansas. ICU director Susan Musgrove, left, nominated Dabney for the award. Also pictured is Shannon Nachtigal, BRMC vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer.

Gainesville resident James Dabney, RN, was recognized May 1 by Baxter Regional Medical Center staff when he received the Servant’s Heart Award during a ceremony at the hospital in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Each year during Nurses’ Week, BRMC staff members have an opportunity to nominate a nurse who has demonstrated excellence in his or her area of practice, exhibits exemplary behaviors, and goes above and beyond caring for patients and peers. From those nominations, one special recipient is chosen to receive the Servant’s Heart Award, a recognition the hospital describes as one that honors “selfless giving to the profession of nursing.”
Dabney, now a registered nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at BRMC, began working as a certified nursing assistant at the hospital in the fall of 2010. He worked full time as a CNA while also attending nursing school. In spite of his teachers’ advice that he wouldn’t be able to work full-time and simultaneously go to school, he did just that every semester until he passed his final nursing exam in March 2013. He then began working in the hospital’s ICU unit.
During that time he and his wife, Jennifer Douglas, were also busy with their growing family, including a son, Keaton, who was born in April 2010. Their other sons are Cooper, 17, and Greyson, 4.
Since becoming a registered nurse, Dabney has also received cardiac training to help recovering open-heart-surgery patients; he also fills in as charge nurse for his unit when needed.
“Those who lead with a servant’s heart often view their careers as a calling, rather than a job. Such is the case with James,” ICU director Susan Musgrove, MSN, RN, said during the presentation. “His clinical expertise, leadership abilities and compassionate approach to all things surrounding patient care are very much appreciated.”
In her presentation speech May 1, Musgrove, who nominated Dabney for the award, praised him for his patient- and family-centered care, his dedication and his willingness to put the needs of others ahead of his own.
“James is respectful of all, grounded in integrity and humble at all times, despite his many talents and his expert level of clinical skills,” she added. “He rejoices in the success of others, often working behind the scene to accomplish things in support of their efforts. His success can be measured by those whose lives he touches in such a positive way.”

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