12/18/2025
Please join us in celebrating Joanie Sampson, RN - Med/Surg, the Beacon Award recipient for December 2025!
Here is what was said about Joanie:
“Joanie consistently goes above and beyond for both her patients and her fellow coworkers. She is often here late in order to care for her wound care patients on top of her run of floor patients. She is kind, knowledgeable, and incredibly caring. Joanie is a wonderful asset to our staff and we are so lucky to have her.” Nicole Ratliff, MSM, PA-C
I am writing to nominate Joanie Sampson RN for a Beacon Award:
Over many years I have witnessed actions above-and-beyond from Joanie and wished to share a few very recent ones that really stand out for me. The FIRST example demonstrates complex multi-part problem-solving skills as well as a high degree of patient advocacy. On this occasion, one of Joanie's assigned patients was a patient visiting our community from Montana and was to be discharged on. Joanie spoke with this patient's family on the phone over the course of the weekend to develop a complete and safe discharge plan as well as to research an accurate home medication reconciliation list as the patient was unclear and vague about his home meds. The plan included having the patient's son flying from Montana to Washington, rent a car, drive to Aberdeen, pick up the patient's prescriptions from a local Pharmacy, return the rental car, take a taxi to our Hospital, and be present for the patient's Discharge Education, and then drive the patient home to Montana in the patient's vehicle. During the course of the weekend, Joanie learned the patient had a history of being non-compliant and unfamiliar with his pre-hospital home meds. Joanie created a home medication pillbox that was well-labelled for the trip home by first identifying each different pill in his pill-keeper "tackle" box and then labelling each group with name, purpose and instructions. She reviewed this with the patient and his son, in addition to the new Discharge Instructions. The Discharge process took several hours to complete on Sunday, but set up the patient and his son for success on the trip to return to his community. This entire process showcased Joanie's attention to detail, patient advocacy, extreme follow-through, as well as kindness and helpfulness toward people who found themselves in an unfamiliar situation and community. And this was not her only patient as she had a full patient assignment.
The SECOND example exemplifies the most well-evolved time management I have ever seen, as she not only manages her own patient assignment but also finds free moments to complete Wound Consults, which include assessment, treatment, and development of plan of care, patient teaching, and documentation. Joanie also uses these opportunities to help develop skills with newer nurses, not only in Wound Care, but also in critical thinking, which leads me to the THIRD example: Joanie saw a new nurse struggling to construct a text to bring information to a Hospitalist but the new nurse was showing hesitation in a challenging situation. Joanie helped the nurse to construct a text focusing on objective, factual assessment findings and explained it in a way to the nurse see her role as a patient advocate and to decrease any feelings of potential intimidation or fear of the Provider's response.
This shows support for our workplace culture and mission-vision-values and exhibits an exemplary role model of always putting the patient first and always maintaining professionalism and kindness. For these reasons and many more I have witnessed over the many years we have worked together, I am appreciative I work with Joanie and that she is on our Med-Surg Team. She IS a Beacon!
Thank You, Brenda Newell, RN, BC, BSN, CMSRN
Joanie received the following:
• Beacon Award lanyard and Lighting the Way Pin
• Framed Certificate with the poem about lighthouses-the symbol of the Beacon Award
• Parking space for a month
• Some of her “favorite things
Joanie will be put into the running for our 2025 “Lighting the Way Legend” Award. Thank you for lighting the way and congratulations!
