Critical care nurse’s generosity inspired by Good Samaritan community

Today marks the first anniversary of when two new floors opened for care in MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital’s Dally Tower. To celebrate, we’re spotlighting the support we received from the community — and our own employees —  to make those new floors possible.

Ask critical care nurse manager, Janine Sanderson, about her 30-plus-year nursing career at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital and she’ll have a story for you — from her first balloon pump (in Room 261, she remembers exactly) to the time she helped a couple in their last hours together.

Sanderson’s interest in the nursing profession began when she was 19 years old. Her younger brother was in a tragic accident that brought him to an intensive care unit (ICU) where he passed away suddenly and with little explanation from the team who provided his care. The experience was traumatic for her entire family, and served as a turning point for Janine.

“I knew that I was going to be in health care and I knew that I wanted to help people because of the devastation my family experienced,” Sanderson says. “I decided then and there that I wanted to work in critical care, I didn’t want another family to experience what mine did.”

Over her 30-year career at Good Samaritan, Sanderson has been a part of the hospital’s growing impact on the community through projects focused on streamlining and improving care for patients and caregivers.

“I can still walk through parts of the hospital and see all of the improvements that I was a part of,” Sanderson says.

She specifically recalls making plans on a single scrap of paper when the concept of Dally Tower was just a dream.

“I remember writing out a diagram of what we wanted for this proposed tower,” she says. “We traveled to many places, touring other ICUs and talking to experts in the field. We quickly realized the physical space was only part of it. My interests really began to grow to workflows, resources and communication.”

In October 2018, she witnessed that work come to fruition with the opening of the top two floors of Dally Tower, an expansion that allows her and other nurses to continue to provide the best possible care for patients and their families.

“Every detail from how the room is set up, to the ability to control lighting translates to more time for patients and higher quality care,” Sanderson says.

In addition to her participation in planning what the new spaces should look like, Sanderson also made a $30,000 gift to name and dedicate a patient room in the new progressive care unit at the top of Dally Tower.

“I remember getting teary eyed when I first thought about making this contribution,” Sanderson recalls. “A lot of people are surprised when they find out that I’ve spent my whole career at Good Samaritan. But, every day I am still making an impact. This was just another way for me to do that.”

She dedicated Room 818 because of its incredible view of the Puyallup Valley, but the generosity behind the gift was inspired by decades of mentors, coworkers and patients at Good Samaritan.

“I wanted to leave a legacy and show gratitude for everything that the hospital has meant to me and my entire family,” Sanderson explains. “Nursing has been good to me, and so has this hospital.  I wanted to give back as a way to thank all of the people along the way that have taught me so much from my first preceptors to my current leaders. After all this time, I consider myself part of the MultiCare brand. I have so much ownership and pride in my organization.”

More than $6 million in donor contributions like Janine Sanderson’s were made through the Good, Great, Growing campaign, to make the Dally Tower expansion possible. In total, 80 more beds were added to Good Samaritan’s overall capacity.