Press Release
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Catherine Larsen, 209-525-3106.
Memorial Medical Center’s Candy Canga-Picar wins nursing award
MODESTO –October 26, 2009 – Memorial Medical Center’s Candy Canga-Picar, R.N., B.S.N., M.B.A., manager of Surgical and Nursing Support Services, was named as the management category winner for NurseWeek Magazine’s 2009 California Nursing Excellence Awards at a September awards ceremony. Canga-Picar was the tenth Memorial Medical Center nurse to be nominated for the Nursing Excellence Awards in the past 11 years.
Canga-Picar was initially named as one of five finalists honored for outstanding work in the management category of the California Nursing Excellence Awards, presented by the publisher of NurseWeek Magazine, the leading source of local and national nursing news. At a September awards gala, nurses were recognized as winners in six categories that included advancing and leading the profession, clinical care, community service, management, mentoring, and teaching. Winners were evaluated by a panel of expert nurse judges using a blinded selection process to choose them from the hundreds of nominations submitted. The six winners advance to the national program as contenders for a national award in their respective categories this fall.
Canga-Picar joined Memorial’s staff in October 1995. At Memorial, her career has evolved through the positions of Skilled Nursing Facility admitting nurse, charge nurse, clinical leader/assistant manager and nurse manager; Surgical Unit manager; and most recently manager of Surgical and Nursing Support Services.
During Canga-Picar’s tenure at Memorial, she led the Skilled Nursing Facility to earn two perfect surveys from the Department of Health Services and earned her master’s degree in business administration. Last year, she led the Surgical Unit to help Memorial obtain Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence designation from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. In March 2009, the department ranked eighth place nationwide in the Press-Ganey Inpatient Satisfaction Survey’s Surgical Subspecialty, and the staff has sustained the 99th percentile for the past two years.
“Nursing is all about people, and I love people,” Canga-Picar reflects. She encourages fellow nurses: “Do what you love and love what you do with excellence.”
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Memorial Medical Center is part of Sutter Health, a family of not-for-profit hospitals, physician organizations and other medical services that share resources and expertise to advance health care quality and access. Serving more than 100 communities in Northern California, Sutter Health is a regional leader in cardiac care, cancer treatment, orthopedics, obstetrics, and newborn intensive care, and is a pioneer in advanced patient safety technology.
