Through its National Service Office, Nurse-Family Partnership recently awarded the Tenacious Caregiver Awards to four distinguished NFP providers at Re:Ignite 2022, NFP’s annual education summit. Lisa Ritchey, BSN, RN, director of Nurse-Family Partnership at UPMC Home Healthcare of Central PA, was honored as the 2022 Tenacious NFP Nurse Administrator.
The Tenacious Caregiver Award for Administrator is given to the outstanding NFP administrator who is at or above funded capacity, has high nurse retention and who finds and secures multiple sustainable funding streams for Nurse-Family Partnership in their community. The administrator also actively participates in the Community Advisory Board and advocates for the program at the local and state levels.
Ritchey has dedicated more than 20 years of service to Nurse-Family Partnership during her 40-year nursing career. She has been a steadfast advocate for NFP in her community and beyond — including using her voice to push for new funding streams and leading her team’s participation in several pilots with the National Service Office to innovate and improve the collective impact. She is dedicated to empowering first-time families to succeed and has presented NFP to various human service providers across the region.
Other award recipients were Maria Otero, RN, an NFP nurse at the Brooklyn Nurse-Family Partnership at SCO Family of Services in New York; Lynn Lauri, BSN, RN, an NFP nurse supervisor at Maternal & Family Health Services in Pennsylvania; and the Nurse-Family Partnership team at McLeod Health in South Carolina.
“This year we received an amazing slate of nominees in all categories, which is a testament to the outstanding impact and dedication of the NFP network across the country,” said Kate Siegrist, chief nursing officer for Nurse-Family Partnership. Nurse-Family Partnership, administered through UPMC Home Healthcare of Central PA, serves first-time mothers in 10 counties: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Huntingdon, Jefferson, Lycoming and Somerset. Providing support, information and guidance, each nurse partners with a new mom to achieve healthy outcomes and better opportunities for both mother and child from pregnancy until the child’s second birthday. Interested first-time mothers must enroll in Nurse-Family Partnership before 29 weeks of gestation. Contact Nurse-Family Partnership at (833) 315-4358
