Employee of the Month helps a family celebrate love
Kelli Herbold is Boone Hospital Center’s Employee of the Month for February 2014. Click here to nominate someone for Employee of the Month.
“I think nursing was my calling,” says Kelli Herbold, a Registered Nurse on Boone Hospital Center’s Medical Specialties unit. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love being a nurse.”
Originally from Ontario, Canada, Kelli moved to Columbia in 2005 to be with her husband, Chris. The couple first met as friends 16 years ago on an online chat room and, after several years, decided to meet in person. “When we met, there was just this connection – and here we are!”
Impressed by the care she received while here for the birth of her sons, Kelli joined Boone Hospital Center six years ago as a patient care tech on the Spine Center, a job she loved. After graduating with her associate’s degree in nursing from Columbia College, Kelli transferred to the Medical Specialties unit as a staff nurse, which she also loves.
“You have those patients that just have that special spot in your heart,” Kelli says, referring in particular to a patient who was hospitalized just before a day he’d looked forward to for a long time: his granddaughter’s wedding. Kelli tried to find a way he might be able to leave the hospital for a day, but his condition prevented it.
Still, she was determined that he not miss this milestone and worked with his granddaughter to make it happen. That Saturday morning, Kelli brought her laptop to the patient’s room and started a Skype session that connected to a camera at the wedding, allowing him to watch the ceremony.
But that was only the beginning. Working with Supportive Care coordinator Mandy Schmidt, Kelli brought the wedding to Boone. The ceremony was held in the hospital’s Healing Garden, complete with a photographer and wedding cake. Family members, the patient’s physician and fellow Medical Specialties staff were in attendance. Kelli still keeps in touch with the family.
When not studying at Central Methodist University for her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing, Kelli enjoys sports and traveling with her family; husband Chris, sons Nathan and Thomas, and daughter Abigail.
When asked what she likes most about working at Boone, Kelli says, “The people I work with are amazing. I’ve made some really good friends here. These are people I know I can count on both at work and outside of work. I know that Boone’s where I’m meant to be.”