March 2022 Honoree
9th Floor Stroke, Neurology, Medical/Surgical
Michelle Hester, BSN, RN (Manager) • Laurie Kohlbeck, RN • Renae Kozik, RN • Judy Devaney, RN • Mindy Decker, RN • Anna Bulson, RN • Tamara Weberg, RN • Terri Vanas, RN • Semia Brown, RN • Becky Makowski, RN • Corey Hogan, RN • Kimberly Tonuci-Chapman, RN • Tiffany Bakale, RN • Araceli Carrillo, RN • Victoria Burns, RN • Samanta Roma, RN • Lydia Flikkema, RN • Jean Westmoreland, RN • Matt Torrenga, RN • Kelsey Fairfield, RN • Madison Lyman, RN • Katelyn Kuiper, RN • Brian Engwall, RN • Rachel Fryer, RN • Linda Ward, PCA • Adam Sneller, PCA • Marta Tucker, PCA • Reanna Sturgis, PCA • Emily Kendall, PCA • Renee Cook, PCA • Steven Sandilands, PCA • Maggie Nielsen, PCA • Charnae Ford, PCA • Kimberly Ladewig, PCA • Jessica Mieczkowski, PCA • Cherrie Eddy, PCA • Brooke Hovey, PCA • Brent Regish, PCA • Chelsea Eggleton-Gomez, PCA • Hannah Harris, PCA • Tricia Apel, PCA • Brittany Evans, PCA • Danyell Sherrill, PCA • Katisha Young, PCA • Amber Beemer, Nurse Extern • Garrett Lindsay, Nurse Extern • Kaitlyn McLain, Nurse Extern • Jamie Bates, Nurse Extern • Mercedes Cochran, HUC • Sheila Wilson, HUC • Mary Kay, HUC • Angela Wheeler, HUC
WAY back in "pre-Covid" days, 9th floor was a nice, "easy" unit to work on, with a mixture of Bariatric Surgical, Stroke, General Medical, Urology, other General Surgery, and the occasional Chemo patients. The staff loved the comfortable reliability of these generally stable patients, combined with the variety of patient types seen on a combined Med-Surg unit like this. Then Covid came to our community. The 9th floor has been THE med-surg Covid unit since we first started seeing this disease in our community. These staff members who dearly valued the comfortable, reliable work that they chose as their profession, had to adapt on the fly to take care of patients who are the polar opposite of their previous patient populations. These patients were extremely sick, and their conditions can change with little to no warning. On top of that, they were dealing with a novel virus and all of the scary unknowns surrounding it. ..What if I bring this home to my family? What if they get sick, or I get sick? When will this all go away? In spite of their concerns and worries, they did what was necessary to take care of some of our community's sickest patients. They did not do this because it was fun or exciting. They did it because it was the right thing to do. They were needed to provide this care for our community. And then they became experts. The 9th floor is now a Covid-Stepdown unit, facing the 4th wave of this dreadful pandemic. They come to work every day, knowing what they face. They are no longer working on an "easy" Med-Surg unit. They are working with patients that, prior to Covid, would have been in the Stepdown unit, or possibly even ICU. I am extremely proud of my 9th Floor team. They have faced drastic changes in their work lives over the last 2 years and witnessed things they could never have imagined or asked for in their careers. They do what they do because it is in their DNA. They are Nurses and some of the best that I have had the pleasure of working with.
Thank you for your exceptional compassion, advocacy, and dedication to your patients. You truly make a difference.
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