Nursing Station in New Intensive Care Unit Named in Honor of Former Nurse Louise Johnson Spiess
In the eyes of her family, Louise Spiess will always be a woman ahead of her time, ably balancing a busy career as a nurse and educator with the demands of raising four children.As a tribute to her accomplishments and to inspire the next generation of nurses, the nursing station in the new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on the Salem Campus will bear her name when it opens in the spring of 2009.
The Louise Johnson Spiess Intensive Care Unit Nursing Station was announced at a ceremony held at NSMC Salem Hospital this past December, and made possible by a gift from her husband, Howard, and four adult children:Gary and Paul Spiess, Barbara Miller and Mary Benda. Gary Spiess is currently Chairman of the NSMC Board of Trustees and Barbara Miller, R.N., is a nurse in the NSMC Union Hospital Emergency Department.
The new 20-bed ICU will be a state-of-the-art patient care unit, says Jane Clarke, R.N., Director of Critical Care/Emergency Services. “The design incorporates light, warmth and space to enhance the patient and family experience, all while providing an optimum environment for medical and nursing care,” she says. The new ICU will offer large private rooms with individual emergency breakaway doors, special infection control features and strategic design with critical care equipment. The unit has a central area for efficient utilization of support functions and increased work space for all members of the health care team, says Clarke. Louise Spiess began her nursing education in 1937 at Ohio University and, later, at Toledo Hospital School of Nursing. When her husband was transferred to the Boston area in 1962, the whole family relocated to Marblehead. Louise, now 88, enrolled at Salem State College when her youngest child, Barbara, was in grade school. She graduated at age 56.
Louise became an assistant instructor of nursing at the Salem Hospital School of Nursing from 1973 to 1975. From 1976 until her retirement in 1982, she was a nursing instructor at North Shore Community College. Even well into retirement, she continued to volunteer in the emergency room at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital. “She was a role model for all of us,” says her daughter, Barbara Miller, R.N., herself an emergency room nurse at NSMC Union Hospital. “Mom really loved teaching and working with the students; she was very gentle.” And while her other daughter didn’t go into nursing, Mary Benda has forged a 22-year career at Salem State College—her mother’s alma mater—where she is the Director of Financial Aid. She remembers her mother bringing students home for dinner and, on occasion, to stay for a while as they sorted out a difficult situation. “Her students loved her,” Benda says, noting that the nursing class of 1976 dedicated its yearbook to her mother.
Eleanor Broadhead Clinical Excellence Award and the Nursing Leadership Award 2008
Broadhead Award:
Dido Claveau (Birthplace)
Catherine Delios Panesis (South 1)
Alyssa Hanson (Davenport 8)
Rajean Medeiros (SKRH-4)
Broadhead Award for Advanced Practice Nurse:
Deborah L. Wilson (SKRH)
Nursing Leadership Award:
Lee Ann Baldini (Union Hospital Case Management)
Kathy Clune (Davenport 8)
Michael Taylor (SKRH)
Salem Hospital School of Nursing Alumni
Peg Hollihan is the primary contact person for the Salem Hospital Nursing Alumni Association. She will respond to messages regarding the Association and will post updates about events and awards here.
mhollihan@partners.org NEWS: This year's alumni banquet in Danversport was attended by 188 people and was a great success! 18 women from the class of 1958 celebrated their 50th year in nursing; they came from all over the country to attend the reunion and they all looked wonderful. Next year we hope to have a bigger turn out from the classes of 1976 and 1977 since they had no representatives this year.
We are updating the mailing list all the time so if any one has a new address or knows of anyone's address that is not on the current mailing list --- please email me!
Peggy.
Lynn Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association
Ann V. McCarthy is the primary contact person for the Lynn Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association. She will respond to messages regarding the Association and will post updates about events and awards here. avmccarthy@partners.org
NEWS: stay tuned....
