Photo: Lisa Goeller congratulations from Penny Williams, RN, Sr. Director of Emergency Services and Eric Tauber, RN, Clinical Manager, Emergency Services.

August 2011 – Lisa Goeller (nominated by 2 people)
Lisa is the most accountable, respectful, hard working, and sweet nurse. I have worked several times with her in adjacent assignments and she is always by my side helping me with patient care. She is an extremely attentive nurse to her patients and families. One night my assignment was very busy. Lisa went into my rooms and took care of all of my orders while I was in another room taking care of a sick child. She showed compassion to the families and took initiative and stood up to the plate without ever being asked. I have learned so much from her and I love seeing her grow and take on greater roles such as being trained for critical care.

I used to work with Lisa Goeller in the Emergency Department on nights and now take report from Lisa when I get here in the mornings. Lisa graduated 2 years before I did and is what a mentor should be. She is one who strives to be a good nurse for all her patients and helpful to her coworkers. In nursing we learn about “doing good” for patients and Lisa seems to be able to do good for them while still maintaining a positive attitude and caring spirit.
Many times Lisa will stay to see a patient through a situation. In this specific situation, I was taking care of an infant who was having feeding difficulties and running fevers. Many times in the ED a patient/nurse bond is hard to obtain due to us being the ones who start PIV’s, force medicines, and are with them at the most vulnerable times of their illness. While taking shift to shift report at bedside, Lisa mentioned his elevated heart rate and fussiness and what she had been watching over the course of the patient in the ED. She respected the family by asking what they wanted to input on the shift to shift report and what they thought would make their child feel better. The family was sad to see her leave due to the excellent care she gave them throughout the night. This motivated me to do as well as she did while taking care of the patient. Lisa also shows compassion for her patients by treating them at the correct age specific level and showing sympathy for the parents. She has shown this by always making children at home in the ED, with blankets, toys, or just a cartoon on the television. She shows sympathy by including the parent’s fears and concerns for their child and what they feel we could be doing better or differently.
Lisa’s accountability is substantial in that she always works hard while at work and makes it the best environment she can for her patient while in her control. More often than not, Lisa stays over to ensure that the new RN knows what has calmed the patient or if she can stay to help the nurse with anything else to provide quick, compassionate, excellent care prior to leaving. I haven’t ever worked with Lisa where she didn’t offer assistance at least once to make sure I had all my orders completed in a timely manner. When she assisted me with my orders, she always makes every effort to treat the child with optimal care and make the parents aware of the plan of care.
In my personal opinion, Lisa has mastered how to take care of patients as a family unit with integrity, compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence while still maintaining care of the unit nurses. Many nurses could strive to be more like Lisa in their everyday practice. If Lisa is recognized for the DAISY Award, many more nurses in the ED will be inspired to care for patients the way she does.