Pat Anderson, RN: Going out of her way to teach families and nurses
Pat, from epilepsy in St. Paul, received the Partner in Quality Care award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “This nurse has a wide array of nursing experience and expertise. She is always working to make our families feel more than welcome and going out of her way to go the extra mile for our patients and families.

She speaks fluent Spanish and will always take the Spanish speaking families as her assignment and is a wonderful facilitator for these families. This nurse will always take student nurses and nurses on orientation without hesitation to teach and mentor.

She is a wonderful teacher, positive nurse, a great addition to our unit.”

Susan Diederichs, BS, RN: Setting an example with clinical excellence and a smile
Susan, from the St. Paul emergency department, received the Leader award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “The word exceptional does not even come close to describing this particular individual. A smile is always on her face! She is one of the two clinical educators down here in the emergency department of Children’s - St. Paul. She does a wonderful job. She’s an expert in inserting IVs in just about any size or age patient.

Being a registered nurse is her job. A person’s job is only half of what makes them whole. Sue D’s other half is how she shines. She’s extraordinary in a way that she genuinely cares to give all that she’s got! More often than not, Sue can be found at the end of the ED hallway training in a new group of hires. She’s that one definite leader who everyone should be setting as an example.

I recommend Sue for all she does because she would never seek something out like this for herself.”

Kaija Freborg, RN: Seeking cultural experiences and higher education to teach families and colleagues
Kaija, from the 5th floor in Minneapolis, received the Knowledge Seeker award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “Kaija is the perfect example of a true knowledge seeker. She is currently enrolled in a Masters program and will graduate this summer with her degree focused on Transcultural Nursing in the community

Kaija uses her experiences with different cultures to allow her to teach all new staff members of Children’s at the Creating Community at Children’s class that is held during each general orientation week. She has shared stories of her trips to Africa, enlightening her fellow coworkers about what she learned through her travels.

As a nurse, Kaija is a strong patient advocate. She is also a strong educator, always making sure her patient’s families have all essential instructions that they may need. She enjoys precepting students and new nurses. She is excellent at instructing them about the use of evidence-based practice.

She incorporates professionalism and compassion in all that she does. She is now talking about continuing her education through to a Doctorial Nursing program this fall.

Kaija is one amazing nurse pursing excellence in her professional development.”

Karen Hoen, BA, RN: An instrumental leader in developing new technology
Karen, from the Perioperative Division at St. Paul, received the Innovator award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “Karen has worked in the surgical area at Children’s since 1973. She has lead and supported many changes over the years. She is an incredible change leader. Karen was instrumental with the Surginet go-live for both Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses. She was a key member of the team with the Excellian go-live at the Day Surgery Center in St. Paul.

Karen embraces new technology in the Perioperative division, which includes robotics, IMRI, minimally invasive, etc. She facilitates processes to support this new technology in many ways including charge codes, billing processes, and supply inventory management.

Recently Karen has embraced lean methodology. She is a lean leader and is the Value Stream manager for surgery. Her attitude and incredible work ethic allows the organization to effectively manage the amount of change we have encountered and to ultimately deliver the highest level of patient care.”

Denise Hutson, RN: Advocating for patients with top notch care
Denise, from the Children’s West radiology team, received the Partner in Quality Care award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “A parent’s response to working with Denise goes something like this, ‘I tell everyone I talk with that Children’s West is the best place to go…and Denise our nurse was awesome, or Denise explained everything in terms we understood, or Denise took extra time with our son, or Denise is wonderful!’

At Children’s West, Denise has been a sedation nurse in the Radiology department for five years. It is a pleasure to come to work everyday because I know the care Denise gives her patients is top notch. She goes about her work in a quiet, calm way and is one of the smartest people I know. She is always willing to share her knowledge with everyone she works with. She advocates for her patients and never comprises our standard of care.

She would do anything it takes to make the child and family experience the best it can be.”

Marie Koldborg, RN: A passion for mentoring and improving patient care
Marie, from the Minneapolis emergency department, received the Leader in Care award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “Marie from the Minneapolis Emergency Department received the Leader in Care award.

Marie has demonstrated excellence in nursing practice by mentoring her colleagues and new nurses. Marie is an outstanding educator who has improved the practice of nearly every nurse in our department over the years. Whether she’s teaching PALS, ENPC, in the community, training new grads in our department or simply working as a staff nurse in the ED, Marie is always working to make sure we’re prepared to provide excellent care.

Every time I’ve worked with Marie over the past 10 years, I’ve learned something new. Marie’s passion for teaching and learning have helped to cultivate a culture of continual improvement in our ED where colleagues feel comfortable asking each other questions about patient care.”

Angela Oliver, BS, RN, PHN: Leading the search for knowledge and encouraging others to learn more
Angela, from epilepsy in St. Paul, received the Knowledge Seeker award.

Excerpt from the nomination: Angela has always been a knowledge seeker since the day I met her five years ago. It was with Angela’s encouragement that she convinced me to pursue higher education. Three years later we both received a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Nursing. I would not have succeeded without her support.

Currently Angela is working toward applying for Pediatric Nurse Practitioner programs.

On a unit level, Angela is always one of the first nurses leading the search for education and information on an unfamiliar issue, diagnosis, or medication. Not only does she routinely utilize educational resources, but she will search research databases to help others better under these issues.”

Mary Skelley, RN, CRNA: Going the extra mile as a respected health care leader
Mary, from Children’s West, received the Leader award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “Mary is one of the most professional colleague leaders I have worked with in my 20+ years of practice in Children’s. Despite not having management responsibilities, she has literally served as the leader for all APRN’s and represented their needs and interests both in the hospital and within the professional staff. Physicians show esteem and respect for Mary’s leadership through action and words. Many families and patients continually thank her for her contributions to their medical care. She always goes the extra mile in whatever she does—with patients, coworkers, and as a leader in the field of medicine.

She is an exceptional role model for trainees and has for years coordinated training for CRNA students and continues on the faculty at Saint Mary’s University teaching about pediatric medical care.

Mary has made many positive changes through her leadership skills. She is the consummate professional and advocate. Her efforts should be acknowledged and honored.”

Bonnie Tersteeg, RN: Taking on new projects and teaching techniques to improve care
Bonnie, from the Minneapolis NICU, received the Innovator award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “Bonnie Tersteeg is an integral part of the NICU team in helping staff adjust to and manage change, as well as improving care for patients and families. She is considered an informal leader by her peers and is a preceptor, CRN, STABLE support instructor, smart pump super user, EMR champion, PIT team member for Vermont Oxford, was previously a Safe Action Team member, and is soon to be the NICU Champion Educator for our computer system.

She has demonstrated her ability to adjust to change by learning and teaching co-workers how to use the smart pumps as well as being among the first to learn EMR and being willing to teach others. Taking that one step further, she will soon be involved in consulting on new pieces of software that need to be added to the computers as they are adjusted and upgraded to meet the unit’s needs.

She is a safety advocate who worked on the Safety Action Team to address and resolve safety issues to create a safer environment for our patients. She is also an active and invaluable member of the Prevention Infection Team in working to reduce our blood stream infections, thus decreasing length of stay for patients and increasing family satisfaction.

Bonnie is an innovator who is always willing to take on one more project and does excellent work in everything she does!”

Sam Warrington, RN: Putting families at ease
Sam, from the Minneapolis PICU, received the Partner in Care award.

Excerpt from the nomination: “Sam has a very special talent of communicating with families and putting them at ease. He worked for years as a HUC in the PICU and experienced first hand having a child in the PICU. The skills he possesses as an RN, plus his individual personal experience make him invaluable to our stressed parents.

I had a family who had a patient preparing for cardiac surgery, as I was finishing up the teaching, I asked if they had any questions. They stated that Sam had done a wonderful job the previous day, explaining what would happen. They continued to sing Sam’s praises and were very impressed with him. This happens frequently when I follow Sam. He connects with families and works well with them.”

Kate Beaudin, RN
Kate from the 5^th floor in Minneapolis received the Medical Education Resident’s award.

Nadine Schultz, BS, RN
Nadine from 4100 in St. Paul received the Medical Education Resident’s award.