Across Maine’s largest integrated health network, thousands of nurses are bringing best practices in their field to the bedside and beyond in order to achieve MaineHealth’s mission of providing high-quality affordable care, educating tomorrow’s caregivers, and researching better ways to provide care.
“Our nurses are so incredibly committed to their patients and their colleagues, it is an inspiration to witness their work each and every day,” said MaineHealth’s Chief Nursing Officer Marjorie Wiggins.
Southern Maine Health Care RN Lail Fuller dons her personal protective equipment prior to a patient encounter.
“MaineHealth supports its nurses by working collaboratively with them to build a nursing culture that emphasizes patient centered care, shared decision making, education and training, and also career advancement.”
Long recognized as the most trusted and respected profession in America according to the national polling firm Gallup, nurses have become even more prominent national heroes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every day we are reminded through headlines, social media posts and even handmade signs and thank you notes that nurses have always been working courageously at the front of the pandemic response effort.
“Nurses are proving, yet again, why they are the most trusted and respected profession in America,” Wiggins said.
Nationally-Recognized Care
MaineHealth nurses recognize the key role they play within a complex and evolving health care system and respond to those challenges with professionalism, openness and patient centeredness. They care not only for their patients but also their fellow colleagues through coaching, mentoring, academic medicine and compassion.
At Maine Medical Center and Mid Coast Hospital, for example, nurses at both locations have been recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as having achieved Magnet status three consecutive times. This makes MMC and Mid Coast two of the few hospitals in the nation to repeatedly achieve this recognition for nursing excellence across a broad range.
Nursing Voice and Empowerment
MaineHealth supports nurses and fosters their contributions to health outcomes and innovation through a variety of mechanisms, including shared governance, which creates formal ways for nurses to provide input into key decisions. MaineHealth also supports nurses who are experts in their fields and have ideas for improving care.
Lori Klavoon, RN, a nurse at Pen Bay Medical Center, identified a need to better support new mothers who may require mental health support services. She started by developing a regional post-partum support group at Pen Bay and Waldo County General Hospital. She then helped create policies that screen and support mothers that have been scaled up across the health system.
“The culture at Waldo County General Hospital, and throughout MaineHealth, encourages me to make a real difference for my patients,” said Klavoon.
“After I gave birth to my daughter three years ago, I recognized a gap in our care. I made it my mission to close the gap.”
Clinical Nurse Educator Christine Schreiber, RN, accepts the “challenge coin” in recognition for her effort to save an injured motorist in the community last September. Presenting the challenge coin is MMC physician David Ciraulo, D.O.
Community Heroes
MaineHealth Nurses routinely serve as volunteers while away from work to support their community through charity events, food banks, prescription drug take backs and much more. Nurses even step up in ways that no one could imagine.
Last September Maine Medical Center Clinical Nurse Educator Christine Schreiber, RN, stopped to help a motorist who was seriously injured in a highway accident. Schreiber was credited with saving the individual’s life, a heroic act she was recently recognized for by the MMC Trauma Department. Schreiber received the Trauma “challenge coin” for her life-saving action.
Giving Thanks to Nurses
Through it all, MaineHealth Nurses provide compassionate care each and every day, no matter the challenge. They do what they do because they love caring for others.
If you would like to thank a nurse from any MaineHealth location, please go to mainehealth.org/kudostonurses to post your message to MaineHealth’s public message board.
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