But Kuell has spent only 16 of almost 50 years in nursing in the Emergency Department at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, a place where more than 52,000 patients are annually admitted, treated and then either sent home or to other hospital departments.
Before joining the ED, a department that she now supervises, as a volunteer in 1987, Kuell had concentrated on obstetrics. But she doesn’t see as much of a difference between emergency care and labor and delivery as the casual observer might think.
“They are the only two departments in the hospital where you can’t say no,” Kuell says. “When all the beds are full, we just have to dig down and somehow make room.”
The Great 100 Inc., a North Carolina organization that annually honors excellence in nursing, has recognized Kuell’s longevity, talent and versatility by naming her a “Great 100 Nurse” for 2004. On Sept. 25, she will join 99 other top nurses from throughout the state for a recognition gala at Greensboro’s Joseph S. Koury Convention Center.
Kuell was, in a word, “overwhelmed” by the honor — surprised as much as by the person who nominated her as for the recognition itself. Cheryl Batchelor, Moore Regional’s executive director of clinical operations, is known as a supportive but exacting boss, but she is as proud of Kuell’s Great 100 recognition as Kuell herself.
“Dotty exhibits the highest level of human motivation I’ve ever witnessed in another person,” says Batchelor. “I really believe that her motivation comes from her personal commitment to her career as a nurse. The Great 100 is an award to recognize excellence in practice and commitment to the profession of nursing in North Carolina. There are only a few who deserve this award, and it would be an injustice if Dotty’s name was not at the top of the list.”
Linda Wallace, vice president for patient services and the hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer, feels the same way.
“I think it is wonderful to have Dotty receive the Great 100 award,” Wallace says. “There is no one who has been more committed to the nursing profession. She is a patient and staff advocate, and she has truly excelled in nursing. We are so proud of her.”
According to Batchelor, Kuell “never, never, never grows weary of making the next change, taking the next risk or communicating the newest evidence-based practice that will improve nursing and patient care.”
That’s evidenced in her personal as well as her professional life.
In addition to having supervised Moore Regional’s Emergency Department for the past dozen years, Kuell coordinated its multi-million-dollar renovation and move into the hospital’s Patient Tower, and researched and oversaw the implementation of its computerized tracking and documentation system.
Before moving south in the 1980s, she developed and opened Massachusetts’ first Out-of-Hospital Birth Center, an operation staffed by certified nurse midwives; and designed and supervised the construction of a labor/delivery recovery unit, also in Massachusetts.
She has taught educational classes for obstetrical and pre-op gynecology patients, worked as a public health nurse and volunteered with the Seven Lakes EMS, becoming the first woman ever to be elected captain of a Moore County volunteer rescue squad.
She also plays a mean game of golf, a couple of months ago took a long-anticipated tandem jump out of an airplane and, during a brief hiatus from health care, successfully sold real estate.
The Seven Lakes EMS work marked her return to health care after she and her late husband, a former firefighter, “retired” to the Sandhills. She had tried real estate and was good at it, but found it just didn’t meet her needs.
“I always missed health care,” she says.
The EMS work piqued Kuell’s interest in emergency work, and she started volunteering in Moore Regional’s Emergency Department without telling anyone that she was a nurse. Her performance during an emergency convinced members of the ED staff what they had already suspected — that she was a trained professional — and she was soon talked into joining the regular staff. By 1992, she had become the assistant director of the department, which consistently ranks at or near the 99th percentile in patient satisfaction.
At a stage of life when most people would be happy to spend much of their time improving their golf game or playing bridge, Kuell continues to work, energized by her love and respect for her staff and the Emergency Department physicians — and theirs for her — and by the excitement of her job.
“It’s never stagnant,” she says. “The people you work with are never the same. I stand between this person and death. That’s the way we all operate. That’s the way everybody feels here.”
Brenda Bouser works in the communications department for FirstHealth of the Carolinas.
