Endeavor Health nurses have always excelled as members of our multidisciplinary medical teams committed to providing patient-centered care in the communities we serve. Each of our system hospitals has a storied history of exceptional nursing devotion and service.
Today, nurses work collaboratively across Endeavor Health in a variety of important roles — as clinicians, advocates, educators, care coordinators, advanced practice providers, researchers, counselors, mentors and administrators. They thrive in a Magnet nursing environment, an American Nurses Credentialing Center designation that recognizes organizations that have met the most stringent, evidence-based standards of nursing excellence in patient care delivery. It’s a results-driven recognition that fosters nurse engagement and honors the role nurses play on their interprofessional teams to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
In this past year, three remarkable philanthropic gifts have helped initiate Endeavor Health’s new, nurse-designed approach to nurses’ scholarship and ongoing professional development and career advancement—the Endeavor Health Nursing Professional Advancement Program (NPAP)—leading to recognized and rewarded special professional certifications for nurses at Endeavor Health.
The NPAP was developed during 2023 by a broadly representative group of nurses over the course of a year-long study and frequent discussions. The exciting, responsive program received early support from the estate of Jean Keitel Cryor, a 1948 graduate of the Evanston Hospital Nursing School; Kathleen A. Cheadle; and Endeavor Health Life Director James L. Garard Jr.
Kathleen Cheadle enjoyed a lifelong relationship with Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital. She was cared for as a child patient and worked at the hospital as a college student. Ms. Cheadle offered philanthropic support for nursing dating back to her earliest gift commitments for Endeavor Health’s NorthShore hospitals. James L. Garard, Jr. became a NorthShore Hospitals Foundation Life Director in 1968. Among a range of philanthropic interests — including support for hospice services and palliative care — education has become a top priority for him in recent years. This newly created program to assist Endeavor Health nurses in their professional journeys, in ways they themselves designed, was highly engaging for both Ms. Cheadle and Mr. Garard.
Endeavor Health’s NPAP was announced in January 2024 by System Chief Nursing Executive John Tressa, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC. NorthShore Hospitals Foundation learned of the Jean Keitel Cryor estate’s donation shortly after the announcement. The estate’s gift helped establish the Jean Keitel Cryor Scholarship Fund for Endeavor Health Nursing Professional Advancement. This gift, along with Ms. Cheadle’s and Mr. Garard’s, will be used to support nurses’ professional development and career advancement projects, research, conferences, and other individual and group activities.
Under the NPAP, Endeavor Health has designed initiatives that can be integrated with and/or complement academics leading to additional nursing degrees, and funds can be used for educational scholarship awards supporting nurses pursuing an advanced nursing degree. Scholarships awarded under the Cryor Fund can be given to students seeking any one of several advanced nursing degrees. So, for example, licensed practical nurses or registered nurses could be working toward an associate degree or BS degree in nursing. And nurses who currently hold a BS in nursing could be working toward an MS in nursing, a Doctor of Nursing Practice or a PhD in nursing.
Nurses pursuing advanced nursing education and Endeavor Health certification under the NPAP can obtain support for their academic scholarships and their NPAP activities that university-enrolled nursing degree seekers may be undertaking concurrently with their academic degree coursework. Often the activities Endeavor Health nurses design under the NPAP can be woven into academic programs as an integral part of required coursework. When designing the NPAP, Endeavor Health nurses integrated degree work with NPAP work activities, so pursuing academic degrees at various levels is built into the guidelines of certain NPAP certifications.
By design, the NPAP supports both academic pursuits and professional development to reinforce the likelihood of advanced degree completion and help nurses grow and thrive in their role. Mrs. Cryor and the generous donors who have donated to this fund have created a truly transformative source of encouragement for nursing clinical, educational, research and leadership excellence.
These efforts would not be possible without philanthropic support. We are powered by the generosity of donors who directly impact our ability to deliver on our commitment to community-connected care.
Please visit this page to learn more about Planned Giving at the NorthShore Hospitals Foundation.