Heather Lamper, a nurse of 31 years, received an award for excellence in her position as Operating Room manager at Muncy Valley Hospital.

MUNCY – “Nursing is a good career, I highly recommend it to young people. When graduating from Muncy High School, it seemed I had two choices, nursing or teaching. Choosing nursing was the best thing I ever did,” ” said Heather Lamper of Muncy.

In her vocation since 1984 after graduating from the former Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, Lamper is currently Operating Room manager with Susquehanna Health Systems at Muncy Valley Hospital.

Lamper speaks from personal experience when she refers to nursing as a mobile career. Her duties have included numerous positions within many hospitals. “When my husband Duane was in the Navy, I found work wherever he was stationed on the east coast. For me, nursing has been and continues to be an exciting and rewarding career.”

Being at Muncy has been especially rewarding for Lamper in that she’s been able to serve patients with whom she’s acquainted. “Caring for former teachers, neighbors, and now that I’m in my fifties, even classmates, make me feel as though I’m giving back,” Lamper said.

She epitomizes the very description of nursing which is, “A person who has the care of the sick or in-firmed, fosters care and influences conditions.” These qualities were recognized when Lamper was the recipient of the Pat Stopper Award for Excellence in Nursing Management. The award was given on May 6 when Susquehanna Health honored its nurses at the 21st annual Recognition and Awards Banquet at Farrington Place in Williamsport.

Currently, Lamper is charged with a staff of 35 individuals including those in the same day service area, pre-admission testing, staffing, safety, sterilization, record keeping and budgeting to name a few.

Lamper shared that the Muncy campus has been recently recognized as one of the top 100 critical access hospitals in the nation per an independent evaluation.

The professional is a member of several related organizations including the Association of Operating Room Nurses. They set standards for practice care and provide on-going education in development. The group meets monthly and provides a publication.

During off hours, Lamper is a knitter. Much of her time is devoted to traveling to New England to football games with her husband and where her son is a member of the Holy Cross College football team.

Additional awards received by Muncy Valley Hospital employees were for Crystal Kimble, RN – Above Clinical Excellence Award for Long-Term Care Nursing; and Shahryar Vahabzadeh, LPN – Above Clinical Excellence Award for an LPN.

National Nurses Week began Wednesday, May 6, 2015, and ended yesterday, Tuesday, May 12, 2015.