I am nominating Carol because of her legacy she has left us in PACU and Baptist Hospital East. Carol was a Kentucky Baptist Diploma RN. Upon graduation she began her nursing career at Baptist Hospital East in 1975. She worked her entire career at Baptist Hospital East. She spent her career as a bedside nurse in the Intensive Care Unit, Open Heart Recovery Unit and ending her career in PACU. Her entire career, Carol displayed a passion for bedside nursing. She also had a passion for looking at ways to improve patient care. This passion led to her asking the question "Would changes in visitation improve patient satisfaction for our unit?" Carol began a review of the literature and noted that very little research had been done in the area, even though it was recommended by the national organization. She decided that a research project should be conducted in PACU here at Baptist Hospital East. She surveyed the staff to determine knowledge deficits and barriers. Next she worked with the Unit Based Shared Governance team to develop family visitation guidelines. Then she conducted education for the staff with the research and how these guidelines would improve patient/family satisfaction.

Throughout the project, Carol led by example and offered support to her co-workers to make sure all staff understood the connection between visitation and our professional practice model. After 6 months, she resurveyed the staff, compared pre and post visitation documentation and evaluated patient satisfaction date. This project has changed the culture in PACU with increased nurse-patient family communication, improved visitation and enhance patient/family satisfaction. Carol was a novice to research, but her passion for her patients was the reason she was passionate about this project. She presented this project at 2 Research symposiums. She consistently and always promoted nurse-family communication in PACU.

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Carol was ground-breaking in her efforts to help BHE identify and enculturate a Nursing Theorist. She researched and proposed Watson's Caring Theory as the guiding theory for nursing practice at BHE. Carol demonstrated and practiced Watson's theory long before it had ever been described and "bottled" by Dr. Jean Watson. She typified it daily in the caliber of care she delivered to every patient and every family.

Carol's favorite quote from Dr. Watson was:

"Maybe this one moment, with this one person, is the very reason we're here on earth at this time"~ Dr. Jean Watson

This quote became the cornerstone to our launch of Watson's theory at BHE. The quote was even put on magnets and given to all nurses. These magnets were again provided at Carol's memorial service as a reminder of how she lived Watson's theory.