Veteran Nurse At Newark Hospital Makes Excellence Seem ‘Ordinary’

NEWARK, NJ — After 26 years on the job, it’s the little things that make Honorata “Nori” Reyes one of the role models of the nursing staff at Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark. Case in point, take her expertise with “difficult” IVs.

“One attempt and it’s done, which brings relief to already-anxious patients,” Reyes’s supervisor and director of nursing Marie DeSimone said of the Union resident’s penchant for compassionate care.

Reyes recently earned some well-deserved recognition via the national “DAISY Award,” which honors the “super-human work nurses do for patients and families every day.” (Learn more about the award here)

Reyes, who works in the hospital’s same-day surgery department, was described as a role model and a team player by her supervisors.

“Nori has a deep passion for the nursing profession and upholds excellence in standards of practice,” DeSimone said. “Sometimes it's not the outstanding event that makes a nurse stand out, but the daily consistent work they do every day that makes it seem so ordinary that it rarely gets acknowledged. Nori Reyes is that nurse.”

According to a news release from the hospital, Reyes was born and educated in the Philippines, and left her native country to work as a nurse in Vienna, Austria. She came to the United States to join her husband, who had been working at Saint Michael’s, and who retired three years ago after working for 28 years at the hospital.

Reyes and her husband have two grown boys, one who is a interior designer and the other a professional dancer, St. Michael’s stated.

Reyes was previously named “Nurse of the Year” when she worked in ambulatory care and received the “Humanitarian of the Year Award” from the Hemophilia Association of New Jersey when she was a hematology nurse.

The nursing veteran was humble but grateful for her most recent award.

“I really didn’t expect it,” Reyes said. “I do this for my patients and for the hospital.”

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