Pediatric nurse, clinical specialist named Frederick Health’s two Nurses of the Year

Jun. 5—From the time Anne Palmer was young, she didn’t think anybody should have to die alone — including animals.

She grew up on a farm in Frederick County, where she was the only one who held this steadfast belief. Even when an animal was nearly gone, and there was nothing left to do, she’d still sit with it, just to provide company.

“My family thought I was crazy,” she said with a laugh. “My brother actually said something was wrong with me.”

But it wasn’t until a guidance counselor at Frederick Community College told Palmer that she’d be well suited to study nursing that she considered a career in health care.

It seems like the guidance counselor was right.

Frederick Health recently named Palmer and her coworker, Leisa McDaniels, Nurses of the Year.

Palmer was shocked at the recognition. So was McDaniels, even though she had also been nominated the year before.

“I was totally surprised. To the point that it was embarrassing when they called my name,” McDaniels said. “I was like, ‘Me?'”

Unlike Palmer, McDaniels felt drawn to nursing from as a young girl.

On her 13th birthday, her dad was in an accident and was admitted to a hospital’s burn unit. McDaniels had always loved science, but as she watched nurses care for her dad and look after her family, it left an impression.

“It might make me cry,” McDaniels said, tearing up. “They had a birthday party for me in a burn unit. And I wasn’t their patient. My dad was.”

When it came time for her to choose the next steps after high school, she thought back to the time she spent with her father’s nurses. She was sold.

McDaniels now works as a clinical specialist through the Nursing Professional Development Office. She spends most of her time in the medical surgical unit.

In her five and a half years at Frederick Health, she has also worked in hospice and palliative care.

Palmer, who has spent 38 1/2 years with Frederick Health, is stationed in pediatrics, though she spends time in the neonatal intensive care unit, too.

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She’s also trained in forensic nursing, a field centered around people who were victims of crime. Forensic nurses gather medical evidence and provide expert testimony to be used in court.

In this work, Palmer has learned that it helps to be with someone in the moment and, using language they can understand, to explain what’s going to happen while they’re in her care. She tells them they can decide when something happens and they have the right to refuse aspects of treatment.

Listening also helps, Palmer said. That’s true of working with kids, too.

“Sometimes it’s better just to sit back and ask more questions and listen to what they need, right then and there,” she said.

Even though Palmer and McDaniels were experienced health care workers when the pandemic hit, it still caused them and their colleagues some degree of whiplash.

With global supply chain disruptions, just getting the tools they needed to care for patients became challenging.

In the early days of COVID-19, volunteers made health care workers masks. Now, every day Palmer walks in, she knows there will be a shortage of something, whether it’s medication or saline.

“It’s almost comical,” she said.

The pandemic created a need for nurses to absorb large amounts of new knowledge quickly, McDaniels said. Watching her coworkers adapt and seeing the stamina they had was encouraging.

But during a time of such incredible pressure, it fell to her to remind them — and herself — why they became nurses in the first place.

“My job is keeping the team motivated to understand, ‘Why are we here?'” she said. “We’re here for the patient.”

Through all the changes COVID-19 brought to Frederick Health, McDaniel’s favorite part of nursing has remained the same. It’s the people.

She still loves the science of caring for patients — the puzzle of figuring out what she can do to help put them on their path toward recovery. But she also loves just connecting with them.

Palmer loves interacting with patients, too. One of her favorite parts of the job is seeing the little ones smile. Her heart swells when they reach for her.

“Just being able to talk to people and making them realize that it’s OK. Nothing is something that you can’t talk about. It’s OK to ask for help,” Palmer said. “We’re gonna help you figure out how to get better.”

Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier