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Majzler receives 2004 Florence Nightingale award

Helen Urbain-Majzler, director of clinical services for Boulder County Public Health, was one of six registered nurses in the state to receive the prestigious Florence Nightingale Award from the Colorado Nurses Foundation at a dinner banquet May 8 in Denver.

"The Nightingale Award for Human Caring honors six outstanding Colorado Registered Nurses whose contributions to the profession of nursing epitomize the philosophy and passion of Florence Nightingale.... These nurses are the motivators and visionaries who contribute to the redefining of the profession of nursing," according to the foundation.

Majzler was one of six nurses selected from 15 finalists chosen from the 309 nurses nominated for the award that recognizes "the tremendous value, contribution and commitment to excellence in human caring that nurses provide for the health care system."

Majzler is only the third nurse from Boulder County Public Health in the 18-year history of the award to receive the Nightingale. Inez Buggs, a nurse practitioner from Clinica Campesina was the first in 1989 and Ann Compian, a public health nurse from San Juan del Centro, was the other in 1992.

Twenty three of the 40 years Majzler has been a nurse has been spent working for Boulder County. She started in 1981 as a visiting nurse to the elderly and homebound patients for the Visiting Nurses' Association and later as a public health nurse in Longmont where she visited hundreds of families with new babies or young children.

She was later made a nursing supervisor in the Longmont public health office where she developed the first maternity, family planning and pediatric growth clinics.

She also recruited and supervised a team of nurse midwives who delivered nearly 300 babies a year in the community maternity program. The public health midwife program, the first of its kind in the state, was subsequently expanded to Boulder and Lafayette and has been responsible for delivering as many as 800 babies a year. The clinical services (which include the midwife program) were moved to the community health centers in the mid 90s.

In addition to the Nightingale Award, Majzler also won the Lillian Wald Award in 2002, which is given to the outstanding public health nurse in Colorado "in recognition of her leadership skills addressing public health concerns in the community and her ability to establish caring relationships with colleagues and clients."