McLeod Dillon is pleased to announce that Bridget Bryant, Critical Care; Regina Floyd, Critical Care; Lionel Rajotte, Anesthesia; and Andrea Atkins, Nurse Practitioner, have been selected to receive the 2018 Palmetto Gold Award. Overall, fifteen McLeod Health Registered Nurses were selected. These nurses represent McLeod Regional Medical Center, McLeod Darlington, McLeod Health Loris, McLeod Seacoast and McLeod Dillon. They join the ranks of the 158 previous McLeod nurses who have received this outstanding award.

The Palmetto Gold Award is a program that was started by various nursing organizations throughout South Carolina as a platform to recognize nursing, and support nursing education with scholarship funds.
“Our nurses are to be commended for devoting their considerable skills and talents to the selfless service of others,” said Marcia Wilds, Chief Nursing Officer at McLeod Dillon. “Being honored as part of this elite group of South Carolina nurses speaks to their high level of skill. The Palmetto Gold recipients are leaders in the field representing a philosophy of commitment to caring for the individual patient that underlies the profession of nursing and the mission of the McLeod organization.”
Bridget Bryant, RN, of Dillon, SC, has ten years of experience as a registered nurse (RN). Bridget is a Registered Nurse in Critical Care Services at McLeod Dillon.
Bridget is a primary preceptor for the Department and is dedicated to mentoring new staff, ensuring they are prepared to manage their patients appropriately. In the past year, she has provided over 2,000 hours of mentorship to new employees. She leads and serves on recruitment activities for new employees, patient safety committees, infection prevention committees and operational improvement opportunities.
Regina Floyd, RN, BSN, of Mullins, SC, has eleven years of experience as a registered nurse (RN). Regina cares for Critical Care patients at McLeod Dillon.
Regina has advanced the profession of nursing at McLeod Dillon as a leader for improvement initiatives and development of policies, procedures, standards, and protocols to improve patient experiences. Regina routinely serves as charge nurse and is crossed trained to work in multiple departments. She oversees staff and patient care ensuring the deliverance of service excellence standards. Regina is a leader in the department and entire facility, and serves as a resource to the novice and experienced nurses team.
Lionel Rajotte, APRN, CRNA, of North Myrtle Beach, SC has 45 years of experience as a Nurse Anesthetist.
Lionel is committed to growing the profession of nursing at McLeod Dillon. He is a preceptor and mentor to all new nurses that work in the department. He advances the profession of nursing through consistently identifying processes that promotes patient safety and service excellence.
Andrea Atkins, FNP-BC, AANP, RN, of Darlington, SC has 12 years of experience as a Registered Nurse, and 8 years as a Nurse Practitioner.
Andi serves as Centering Pregnancy Director/Facilitator at McLeod OB/GYN Dillon and is a Certified Lactation Counselor.
After being awarded a grant, her office started Centering Pregnancy in January 2017. Her overall goal is to see the premature birth rates decrease in Dillon County and surrounding areas with the initiation of Centering Pregnancy. She feels that Centering has allowed the practice to provide more consistent education since lack of education leads to higher preterm rates.

About the
Palmetto Gold Award
Each year, employers from across a wide variety of South Carolina health care settings nominate outstanding nurses from their organizations to be considered as one of the 100 nurses honored with this prestigious award. The nominators are asked to provide evidence of how the nominee demonstrated excellence to the profession by addressing the following criteria.
Those areas include: promoting and advancing of the profession of nursing; displaying of caring and commitment to patients, families, and colleagues and demonstrating leadership by assisting others to grow and develop.
This is a competitive process and usually several hundred nominations are submitted with only 100 being selected. Each year the competition for the Palmetto Gold Nurse Recognition Program is becoming more stringent as the number of nominations increases. To select the 100 RNs, a team of six nurses from across the state participate in a blind review process. The nominees are not referred to by name or place of employment on the nomination sections seen by the judges so they are unaware of who they are or for which institution they work.
The recipients of the 2018 Palmetto Gold Award were recognized at the Palmetto Gold Gala on April 21 in Columbia. To support the future of nursing,
the proceeds from the Palmetto Gold Gala, are used to provide scholarships to each of the approved registered nursing programs in South Carolina.