CANANDAIGUA – A Thompson Health cardiac rehabilitation nurse was recently named one of only two recipients of a national award presented by Mended Hearts, Inc.
A nonprofit organization, Mended Hearts partners with more than 460 hospitals and rehabilitation clinics throughout the country, offering information and support to people with heart disease and their families.
The organization’s Rochester chapter has a Canandaigua satellite program at Thompson Hospital, and coordinator Mary Allhusen, RN-BC, was nominated by Rochester Chapter President Sharon Feldman for the Sydney & Helen Shuman Nurse Recognition Award. The award was established “to show appreciation to the nurses who make a positive difference by their skill, care and presence.”
“Mary’s patients love her and feel that she has given them confidence in their ability to recover from their cardiac problems,” said Feldman, adding that for more than 20 years, “Mary has been unrelenting in bringing hope and caring to heart patients and their families.”
A Canandaigua resident, Allhusen has worked at Thompson since 1979. She assisted with founding the hospital’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Department in 1991, supervised it for many years, and remains a staff nurse. In addition to assisting Facilitator Jim Fralick with Thompson’s monthly Mended Hearts support group, she is a key organizer of Thompson’s annual Rose Walk – which raises funding for the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Fitness Center’s scholarship fund – and helped launch Thompson’s Eastview Mall Walkers program.
Allhusen is expected to be officially presented with her award at the Sept. 13 meeting of Thompson’s Mended Hearts chapter.
The one other 2012 recipient of the Sydney & Helen Shuman Nurse Recognition Award is a nurse who works with a Mended Hearts chapter in Knoxville, Tenn.