Can one person really make a difference? Just ask Laura Kellogg, RN, a nurse at Samaritan Hospital, whose actions showed just how much every staff member can transform the patient’s hospital experience.
A 2014 graduate of the Memorial College of Nursing, Kellogg proved she embodies the core values of St. Peter’s Health Partners when she cared for a surgical patient on Samaritan’s 5th floor last November. The patient, who happened to be an alumni of the Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing, was so touched by Kellogg’s compassion and excellent nursing care that she wrote a special letter of gratitude after her stay and had her husband deliver Kellogg several meaningful gifts.
The patient explained in her letter that her “days are limited” and she wanted to share some of her cherished belongings with Kellogg, including the patient’s Florence Nightingale pin from graduation; a commemorative brick from the former Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing building; and two books, one of which was authored by the former director of the Samaritan School of Nursing, Leora E. Belknap, entitled “The Story of Samaritan: A History of the Hospital, School of Nursing, and the Eddy Memorial Foundation.”
Asked what her personal nursing philosophy was, Kellogg replied simply “to treat people how you like to be treated.”
Congratulations to Laura Kellogg! In the words of her patient, “you’re one in a million and it is such a privilege to know you!”
