The Nurse of the Year Award honors an individual who displays extraordinary nursing skills in caring for individuals residing in a care facility/senior care. 
You deserve 365 days of PTO, but here's an award instead!

Sarah Lewis is a RN/Infection Preventionist at Maple Lawn Senior Care, a senior care campus located in Fulda. Sara has worked in senior care for over ten years, two of those at Maple Lawn. Nominated by Heidi Appel, RN/Director of Nursing, here is what Heidi had to say about this year’s Nurse of the Year award recipient:

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“To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can, in spite of all we go through; that is to be a nurse.”

Sara has been a full-time employee at Maple Lawn since 2018 and is known for her high standard of performance. She cares for residents, family members, and staff with respect and dignity and is a great asset to this nursing home—as well as the local community.

Sara has a passion for nursing and healthcare overall. Not only is she our full-time RN Infection Preventionist, she is also working on advancing her career to being a Nurse Practitioner. She wasn’t hired as our Infection Preventionist but willingly took on the role after our previous IP stepped down. Little did she know she would be walking into a minefield known as COVID-19. She not only embraced this challenge, she started to eat, breathe, and sleep this new mystery. If she isn’t retraining staff, she is watching yet another Care Providers webinar or listening in to another COVID call. And if she isn’t doing that, she is making another amazing video to family members or staff to update them on our current COVID situation – something we send out in a link via text to families and staff. I am amazed at how well she is able to juggle being a full-time student, wife, mom of 2 children, and Maple Lawn’s full-time Infection Preventionist. But here she is, rocking it.

Sara is well known throughout the campus for her compassion and energy. She is always courteous and helpful to others. She is highly respected by her peers and appreciated by her residents because of the way she treats others. Sara adapts her plan of care to fit the latest infection control model/rule/policy/procedure. Sometimes her plans are adapted multiple times in an 8-hour shift. She is seen as a very positive person of the team and exhibits a “win-win” philosophy. Sara is efficient and thorough in her work and whips out policy after policy in a timely manner. She is highly respected by those with whom she comes in contact and is an exemplary role model to others on campus.

We recently reached out to staff asking of any of them would be willing to become our COVID Champs if we ever get a case on campus. Sara not only got the COVID unit ready but she trained and retrained staff. She is a true COVID ROCK STAR!!!!

Infection Prevention is her mission; resident care is her passion. The energy and enthusiasm with which she goes about her life are remarkable. Sara emulates warmth, humility, and compassion as she serves others and always expresses appreciation to others for their efforts.

Comments from co-workers: There are so many words that come to mind when I think of Sara; fun, silly, kind, compassionate, empathetic, ethical, respectful, intelligent, attentive to detail, motivated, critical thinking. She is passionate about the care provided in the LTC setting. As a nurse that has worked in the LTC setting since the mid-70s and nearing the end of my career in nursing , it warms my heart to work alongside Sara, recognizing all of her wonderful qualities and her potential to experience leadership in her nursing role.