Frances E Carlson, ADN

Fran is an outstanding nurse that I, many other staff, and countless patients have had the pleasure of working with in her 20+ years of service at the Tomah VA Medical Center. She is often charge nurse on night shifts, lending her expertise and experience to the operational stability of the Dementia ward ensuring greater degrees of smoothness regarding patient care and excellent hand-off reporting. Despite a heavy patient care load and while being charge, she goes the extra mile with patients. I’ve seen her personally ambulate patients at 3 AM to salvage their mobility while they are deconditioning due to disease. I’ve witnessed her heart-to-heart with patients grieving/struggling as they realize their progressive Parkinson’s is worsening and assist them with basic activities of daily living as their tremors prevented their self-care. She is the nurse you want by your side when a Veteran’s status begins to become critical. Fran’s patients love her, staff respect her, and her presence is a calm constant and welcome salutary for the Dementia unit and the Tomah VAMC as a whole.