PFAU IS MISSOURI'S EMERGENCY NURSE OF THE YEAR

Luann Pfau of Cape Girardeau, a registered nurse in the Gene E. Huckstep Emergency Center at St. Francis Medical Center, has been named Missouri's Nurse of the Year by the Missouri Emergency Nurse Association.

Pfau was recognized Aug. 4 during the association's annual meeting at Lake of the Ozarks. She is the first nurse to receive the honor.

Pfau has been employed by St. Francis since April 1976, first as a graduate nurse, then as a registered nurse on one of the medical center's nursing floors. She transfered to the hospital's emergency room.

Her titles in the emergency department have included staff nurse, clinical nurse, charge nurse and trauma-nurse specialist. She also trains nursing, EMT and paramedic students who are assigned to clinical rotation duty in the emergency center.

She teaches advanced cardiac life-support classes each year at St. Francis and is an active participant in the hospital's continuous quality improvement program. She also participates in medical center community service projects, including the Senior American Health Fair, the Womancare Conference, the SEMO District Fair's first-aid station, the traffic offenders program and the hospital's head and spinal-cord injury-prevention program.