Margaret
Campestre
January 2025
Margaret
Campestre
,
RN
Hackensack Medical Center
Hackensack
,
NJ
United States
The nurse whose influence is felt the most is the one who quietly leaves an indelible impression in encounters with her fellow teammates and patients. It’s the nurse who finds creative ways to educate, mentor, and inspire the future. And that’s exactly who Maggie is.
It is with great pleasure that I have the honor of recognizing Maggie Campestre, one of my first mentors as a bedside nurse, for the DAISY Award for Nurse Leaders.
In my experience, the nurse who has the most profound impact on the lives of staff, patients, and families is not the one with the most accolades or endless letters following their name. The nurse whose influence is felt the most is the one who quietly leaves an indelible impression in encounters with her fellow teammates and patients. It’s the nurse who finds creative ways to educate, mentor, and inspire the future. And that’s exactly who Maggie is.
She has been a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Hackensack University Medical Centre for more than 25 years, and I remember my very first encounter with her; it was about 6:30 in the morning, and I was a newly hired nurse on orientation.
Though secretly terrified, I exhibited an air of inappropriately placed bravado, which I only much later recognized for the danger that it was. I sat alone eating my breakfast, an unknown quantity to my coworkers.
I still remember the chair she sat in when she came into the breakroom to eat a quick bagel before her shift ended, and the one thing I recall so vividly was how approachable and open she was, with an air of palpable positivity and genuine kindness surrounding her. She quickly inspired an implicit trust, a feeling that has grown substantially between us over time.
We take care of the most complex patients imaginable – infants who are medically and socially vulnerable and fragile. I have on many occasions sought not just her clinical expertise, but her wisdom and finesse when I found myself in a position requiring a deft hand.
She has spent countless hours talking me through the quagmires I often find myself in – both personally and professionally- and she does so without making me feel burdensome. She has taught me the value of maintaining a work-life balance and the importance of nurturing relationships.
Throughout the many intense and critical moments inherent in a unit where, at any moment, a family’s reality could very well change forever, she maintains a steadfast and supportive presence in the periphery; a backbone for the families we care for, as well as our staff.
In every circumstance, she has validated and supported me, without making me feel small or stupid; her touch delicate, sincerely kind, and always appreciated beyond measure.
She has been a permanent charge nurse for almost 20 years, a peer leader who is totally unaware of the way she commands the respect of every room she walks into, a moving display of exceptional humility.
I have never seen Maggie raise her voice or express her displeasure disrespectfully; when she witnesses things that she believes are counter to the standard of care expected for our patients, she gently redirects us, though she does so without embarrassing or humiliating us.
I have spent most of my nursing career under her instruction and guidance, and she has taught me countless invaluable lessons. Her bedside experience is almost unparalleled, and she is often approached for her incomparable clinical skill and judgement.
I will never forget the day, as a newly minted NICU nurse, when she walked down the front hallway and asked me to start an IV on a baby she couldn’t find one on. I remember thinking, “Is she tapping into my beginner’s luck”?
It was only in retrospect that I came to appreciate and understand the motivation behind her request that day. She was instilling within me the confidence and absolute trust she had in my skill, though at the time it made little sense to me. Maggie has certain qualities that remarkably few have, both as a bedside nurse and as a leader.
There were countless shifts where I spent my night caring for the sickest baby on the floor, and I was always in awe of the balance she struck between giving me the space to care for my patient independently, without the feeling of being micromanaged, and the feeling that she would be there without hesitation or delay when I needed it.
She is also one of the few people who possesses an uncanny ability to smell impending catastrophe, poising herself gently nearby so that she can defray the consequences.
She unequivocally supported my past pursuits of leadership positions within the unit and modelled for me how to effectively empower and advocate for my coworkers and patients, without disabling their autonomy. In her, I have found not just a mentor and source of professional inspiration, but a trustworthy and loyal friend.
She has strengthened and encouraged me at every turn, and she has empowered me to tap into my own strengths, before I even realised what those were. She has shared in my joys, lent a comforting hand in moments of pain and struggle, championed my desire to reach for more, helped to unravel the chaos that lives within me, and has shown a genuine interest in my future.
In mine, and in the lives of so many of my colleagues, Maggie is irreplaceable.
In my experience, the nurse who has the most profound impact on the lives of staff, patients, and families is not the one with the most accolades or endless letters following their name. The nurse whose influence is felt the most is the one who quietly leaves an indelible impression in encounters with her fellow teammates and patients. It’s the nurse who finds creative ways to educate, mentor, and inspire the future. And that’s exactly who Maggie is.
She has been a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Hackensack University Medical Centre for more than 25 years, and I remember my very first encounter with her; it was about 6:30 in the morning, and I was a newly hired nurse on orientation.
Though secretly terrified, I exhibited an air of inappropriately placed bravado, which I only much later recognized for the danger that it was. I sat alone eating my breakfast, an unknown quantity to my coworkers.
I still remember the chair she sat in when she came into the breakroom to eat a quick bagel before her shift ended, and the one thing I recall so vividly was how approachable and open she was, with an air of palpable positivity and genuine kindness surrounding her. She quickly inspired an implicit trust, a feeling that has grown substantially between us over time.
We take care of the most complex patients imaginable – infants who are medically and socially vulnerable and fragile. I have on many occasions sought not just her clinical expertise, but her wisdom and finesse when I found myself in a position requiring a deft hand.
She has spent countless hours talking me through the quagmires I often find myself in – both personally and professionally- and she does so without making me feel burdensome. She has taught me the value of maintaining a work-life balance and the importance of nurturing relationships.
Throughout the many intense and critical moments inherent in a unit where, at any moment, a family’s reality could very well change forever, she maintains a steadfast and supportive presence in the periphery; a backbone for the families we care for, as well as our staff.
In every circumstance, she has validated and supported me, without making me feel small or stupid; her touch delicate, sincerely kind, and always appreciated beyond measure.
She has been a permanent charge nurse for almost 20 years, a peer leader who is totally unaware of the way she commands the respect of every room she walks into, a moving display of exceptional humility.
I have never seen Maggie raise her voice or express her displeasure disrespectfully; when she witnesses things that she believes are counter to the standard of care expected for our patients, she gently redirects us, though she does so without embarrassing or humiliating us.
I have spent most of my nursing career under her instruction and guidance, and she has taught me countless invaluable lessons. Her bedside experience is almost unparalleled, and she is often approached for her incomparable clinical skill and judgement.
I will never forget the day, as a newly minted NICU nurse, when she walked down the front hallway and asked me to start an IV on a baby she couldn’t find one on. I remember thinking, “Is she tapping into my beginner’s luck”?
It was only in retrospect that I came to appreciate and understand the motivation behind her request that day. She was instilling within me the confidence and absolute trust she had in my skill, though at the time it made little sense to me. Maggie has certain qualities that remarkably few have, both as a bedside nurse and as a leader.
There were countless shifts where I spent my night caring for the sickest baby on the floor, and I was always in awe of the balance she struck between giving me the space to care for my patient independently, without the feeling of being micromanaged, and the feeling that she would be there without hesitation or delay when I needed it.
She is also one of the few people who possesses an uncanny ability to smell impending catastrophe, poising herself gently nearby so that she can defray the consequences.
She unequivocally supported my past pursuits of leadership positions within the unit and modelled for me how to effectively empower and advocate for my coworkers and patients, without disabling their autonomy. In her, I have found not just a mentor and source of professional inspiration, but a trustworthy and loyal friend.
She has strengthened and encouraged me at every turn, and she has empowered me to tap into my own strengths, before I even realised what those were. She has shared in my joys, lent a comforting hand in moments of pain and struggle, championed my desire to reach for more, helped to unravel the chaos that lives within me, and has shown a genuine interest in my future.
In mine, and in the lives of so many of my colleagues, Maggie is irreplaceable.