A Beaver County woman has been named one of 40 recipients worldwide of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest honor awarded by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

	Catherine Head Click photo for larger image.

Catherine "Katie" Head, of Fombell, a registered nurse who first volunteered with the American Red Cross in 1999, was recognized along with a Bucks County volunteer for developing a pre-screening process that overhauled how the organization placed volunteers at disasters.

The process identifies potential health problems of volunteers so they're not placed in situations that would incapacitate them and hinder disaster management.

The medal, created in 1912 to honor the legendary British nurse, is awarded every two years to volunteers who have "demonstrated extraordinary courage to help the wounded, sick or disabled as well as civilian victims of armed conflict or disaster in times of war or peace."

Past award ceremonies have been held in Washington, D.C. No date or location has been set for this year's ceremony.

Ms. Head, 59, a certified nurse midwife, retired from the Lehigh Valley clinical practice she owned with Brenna Aileo in 1999. When Ms. Aileo decided to undergo volunteer training with the Red Cross that year, she joined her.

Realizing that 95 percent of the Red Cross' disaster operation relief work was done by volunteers, the two women decided to identify trends to bolster on-site effectiveness. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics benchmarks, they searched through an estimated 40,000 injury and illness reports generated by Red Cross volunteers during 2004 hurricanes Bonnie and Charley.

"The poor UPS guy was bringing in cases of reports," said Ms. Head, who moved to Fombell four years ago.

Ms. Aileo, a retired army nurse who had managed surgical and ICU units during the Persian Gulf War, and Ms. Head, with years of nursing experience, expanded on the voluntary health assessment filled out by volunteers. The women developed "hardship codes" to identify specific health problems that could disable volunteers in the field. For example, a volunteer with chronic respiratory problems such as asthma would not be sent to a forest fire or hurricane where ashes or mold would proliferate.

They also developed a training regimen so local Red Cross chapters could be trained to implement the program.

It was put in place by the Red Cross prior to the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The number of volunteers disabled by health problems was half the previous year.

Ms. Head said she was surprised by the award.