Gail Ellis receives new Community School award
BY MARY LANCASTER
At a gala brunch on Sunday at Bartlett's Farm, Our Island Home's nursing director Gail Ellis was honored with the Nantucket Community School's first Annual Community Advocate Award for her efforts to pioneer a nursing program allowing those interested in the career to study on the island.

The 11-member Adult Education Program Advisory Committee honored Ellis, a certified registered nurse and island resident since 1988, with the Community Advocate Award.

"I'm very excited," Ellis said on Friday. "It has been a very long process, but now it's paying off. Being here, the adult learner already has so many barriers. We decided to eliminate some of them so they could be successful. One of the things we realized right away is that the most difficult part to become a practical nurse student is that they have been out of school so long they weren't successful in passing the entrance exam to get into school.

"The biggest problem was algebra," Ellis explained. "So, Patty Roggeveen (Community School director) and Michele Meckler who works with Patty offered a Licensed Practical Nurse preparatory course with medical terminology, math and writing skills at the Community School. It's been a great partnership."

Ellis, who moved to Nantucket in 1988 with husband Jim and daughters Kaitlyn and Ainsley, began service on the island as the medical surgical clinical coordinator at the hospital and became the OIH nursing director in 1996. In 1999 she earned full certification in gerontological nursing.

Ellis, though highly qualified, is modest about her accomplishments. In 2002 she began a training course to certify nurse asssistants at OIH to develop its workforce and create a career ladder to retain aides who then knew they had a chance for advancement. Ellis, along with her colleague Regina Kohlhepp, put the program together with aid from a grant from the Extended Care Career Ladder Initiative, administered by the Commonwealth Corporation.

The program and ladder allow entry level, unskilled workers interested in the health care field to become trained as nurse assistants and go on for further education. The process moves from becoming a certified nurse's aide to becoming a certified nurse's aide/mentor who orients new people entering the program, to becoming a restorative nurse's aide who works with facility residents to maximize exercise abilities, to becoming a licensed practical nurse and finally, a registered nurse.

Roggeveen said the Community School began giving children's advocate awards three years ago, and after many requests from island residents decided to initiate rewards for those in the community doing good work that was not child-related. The 11- member Adult Education Program Advisory Committee chose Ellis, a certified registered nurse, because of her model program to bring nursing studies to local residents.

"It's a great program, and this week has been spirit week so we thought it would be great to have the brunch on Sunday," said Roggeveen.

The practical nursing program lasts 10 months and is offered in a partnership between Upper Cape Regional Technical School, Our Island Home and the Community School. It provides classroom theory, laboratory practice and supervised patient care. Not only can graduates of the program find employment at Our Island Home, there is a need for qualified health care workers in the hospital's Home Health department, for private duty, for school nurses and in doctors' offices.

The local nursing instructor is Heather Francis, RN. Students in the practical nursing program are Teal Beal, Amanda Ciarmataro, Ella Finn, Nadene Haye, Mary Patton and Sarah Patton.

Donations to offset the cost of students' tuition, uniforms, books, personal liability insurance, exams and travel expenses to complete the medical-surgical and labor and delivery clinical rotations at Cape Cod Hospital are welcomed and may be made to Nantucket Education Trust, c/o Patricia Roggeveen, Nantucket Community School, 10 Surfside Road, Nantucket, Mass. 02554.

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