NURSE-BUSINESSWOMAN GIVEN MEDAL.

Byline: Daily News

PALMDALE - Linda M. Plush, owner of two local medical service companies, was one of 40 California business leaders to receive a gold medal at ``A Salute to America's Business Leaders,'' sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C.

Plush's gold medal was presented by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia. She attributed her honors to 10 years of efforts to promote legislative reform for small businesses.

For 10 years, Plush, a nursing practitioner, has tracked legislation dealing with health care and nursing issues on the state and national levels. Specifically, she followed regulations affecting dialysis treatment and certification, sending information to the Western Region of the Nephrology Nurses Association. In addition, her legislative interests have involved her in the fight for tax reform and elimination of duplication in regulations for small businesses.

Plush owns Plush Systems Inc., a school for training dialysis technicians, and West Palm Inc., a mobile acute dialysis service.

In 1991, she founded the Space Nursing Society, which has grown into a 700-member international organization. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments, Aerospace Medical Association and National Space Society.

Currently, she is on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center's Advanced Projects team, which is working with tele-medicine issues for long-duration space flight, and NASA's Integrated Products Team, which is studying nutritional issues for space flight.

Plush holds a bachelor's in nursing from California State University, Long Beach and a master's of science in nursing and family nurse practitioner certificate from Azusa Pacific University.