Values in Action Spirit Award Recipient for February – Cookie Wharran

An employee since 1979, Charlene “Cookie” Wharran was selected as the Western Maryland Health System’s Values in Action Spirit Award recipient for the month of February. Cookie is a registered nurse who works on the 4 South nursing unit on the Memorial Campus. She began her career as a nurse on the old 4 South at Memorial and has continued to work on the med/surg unit ever since.

Cookie is an excellent nurse with a great attitude and a strong commitment to her patients as well as the nursing profession. She always takes extra time and effort to ensure the WMHS core values are maintained while taking care of her patients. Cookie enjoys taking care of her patients and she works hard to develop a good rapport with them. She says it is a very rewarding experience to see patients improve and eventually go home from the hospital.

Co-workers describe Cookie as positive, knowledgeable, dedicated and compassionate. They say she is the “gold standard” for nursing at WMHS and she’s a great role model for newer nurses. Cookie often goes above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis. She serves as a mentor to younger staff and is more than willing to share her nursing experience with her co-workers. Cookie is recognized by patients, staff and physicians as the “go-to” person on 4 South.

One of the most distinctive things about Cookie is that she almost always wears white and always wears her white nurse’s cap. “I worked hard for it,” says Cookie, referring to her nursing degree and the privilege of wearing the white cap. “I earned it and I enjoy being a nurse. I also know that my patients and their families really appreciate it.” She says everyone knows you are a nurse when you wear that cap and many patients tell me how much they like it. She says it also conveys her love and respect for her professional calling as a nurse.

Cookie and her husband, David, have been married for 29 years and they reside in Beans Cove, Pennsylvania. They are the parents of two daughters – Stephanie, 23, and Shannon, 21, a student in the graphic design program at Shippensburg State. Cookie is also a grandmother to four-month-old, Gabriella.

Away from work, Cookie enjoys making crafts in the family’s woodworking shop, where she refinishes and re-upholsters old furniture. She also likes to work on cars and ride motorcycles with her husband. In addition, Cookie likes to sew, take walks and sit on the front porch. She and David also traveled to the Western part of the Unites States a couple of times in the past two years. Congratulations, Cookie!