November 2022
Rose
Peterson
,
MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN
ICU/Intermediate Care
Mayo Clinic Health System – Franciscan Healthcare, La Crosse, WI
La Crosse
,
WI
United States

 

 

 

Rose’s colleagues, including nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and administrators, describe her as wise and virtuous, a tireless advocate, and a respected role model, teacher, and clinician.
Rose Peterson for the WLN Extraordinary NE. This fall, Rose will be celebrating 50 years of dedication to the nursing profession with 28 of those years as a critical care CNS. This nomination is submitted from the compilation of statements from 13 contributors who knew it would be hard to succinctly express the gratitude and respect for Rose in less than 500 words.

Rose’s colleagues, including nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and administrators, describe her as wise and virtuous, a tireless advocate, and a respected role model, teacher, and clinician. Rose has changed the course of critical care nursing in our institution through her ability to foster collaborative interprofessional relationships and bring best practices to the bedside.

A critical care physician colleague wrote, “She is a key building block in the foundation of our team. Many of us look to her for guidance.” Rose was called, late one evening by one of our pulmonologists, regarding the use of a newly implemented device for the treatment of a patient’s esophageal varices. Rather than aid over the phone, Rose returned to the ICU to mentor staff late into the evening regarding the complexity of the treatment. This is just one testament to her serving as an expert resource to provide safe, efficient, and equitable care to our most critical patients.

The recent Covid pandemic brought new challenges to our institution that even Rose has never seen in all her years. However, Rose would be in early to work every day to round on patients requiring advanced treatment for Covid. She was instrumental in ensuring staff was comfortable proning patients in not only the ICU but also general medical units. She worked effortlessly with all key disciplines to implement constantly changing practices for the reduction of Covid transmission during aerosol-generating procedures, such as CPR and high-flow oxygen administration.

Rose has been a lifelong learner and encourages those around her to continue to learn. She has developed and taught numerous classes for all disciplines in the care of the critically ill, formally precepted many staff nurses, and mentored nurses at the bedside that are too many to count.

A colleague wrote, “She helped me become an ACLS and BLS instructor. She was always very supportive of me and encouraged me to teach.” Another colleague wrote, “She is the reason I went into the CNS role. She has great depth of knowledge of her practice.” Rose maintains her WOCNCB foot care certification to help community residents receive free foot care and recently taught 25 practitioners to perform foot care seeing over 400 community residents.

We would like to close our nomination for Rose with a statement from Rose’s respiratory therapist colleague of close to 30 years, “Every decision from this Servant Leader comes from her belief that the needs of the patient comes first. Rose’s work ethic and commitment to patient care are impressive and her impact on all our staff is immeasurable and will be long-lasting.”