Adventist Health Lodi Memorial selects nurse Jessica Nasello for this year’s honor
Award is named for nurse who helped raise funds for LMH
Jessica “Jesi” Nasello is known as the voice for her patients, and also for her colleagues. She is the nurse who is equal parts compassion, intelligence and a scientific mind. She is the one who sees something that can be better, and dives in to find a solution.
“That’s Jesi,” her peers agree. And that is why she was selected as the recipient of Adventist Health Lodi Memorial’s Loraine Pope Nurse of the Year award at a ceremony on Tuesday.
“There are all of these layers of Jesi. She’s passionate, and she speaks up for people. She has a voice and wants to be heard,” said Kippy Pogue, director of the hospital’s medicalsurgical unit, where Nasello works.
The Lorraine Pope Nurse of the Year award is based on a model of how nurses should practice and collaborate to provide the best quality care for those served by Adventist Health Lodi Memorial. The award is named after longtime Lodi Memorial nursing leader Lorraine Pope, whose influence helped set the standard for this nursing professional practice model at the Lodi hospital.
Lorraine Pope was born and raised in Lodi. She was a driving force to raise funds and build Lodi Memorial. Her daughter, Terri Whitmire, who now runs the hospital’s adult day services program, remembers being pushed in a stroller while her mother went door to door asking for donations to build Lodi Memorial Hospital.
As a nurse, Pope started working for the Lodi hospital as a part-time surgical nurse and eventually became director of nursing.
“This hospital was her passion; this hospital was her love,” Patient Care Executive Katie Grimm said of Pope. “The Lorraine Pope honorees exemplify the kind of extraordinary, compassionate nurse that Lorraine was. Through their actions and wisdom, they guide and encourage their fellow nurses to strive to meet this bar of exceptional nursing.”
In addition, these nurses give unselfishly of their time and effort to improve patient outcomes and show true concern for each patient, Grimm said. “They create and sustain a culture of quality and care that continually reflects God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope.”
Nasello was selected because she stands out as a leader among her peers and has continuously advocated for her patients, their families and her coworkers. During COVID-19, she pursued treatment and nursing care options and make sure her fellow nurses truly grasped the same knowledge.
“She is not shy to advocate for patients or fellow colleagues,” Pogue said. “Jesi jumps on teams, gets involved and saves lives by improving processes. She puts herself forward: To do better, to get to the grassroots, to make sure something is done right.”
Pogue remembers once during the pandemic, Nasello came
to her about someone who was struggling with numerous problems ranging from COVID-19 to finances. Nasello wanted to help this person’s battle, and got on the phone immediately to find gift cards and other resources for the family.
“She won’t just say, ‘Oh, I’m really sorry to hear about that.’ She wants to make a plan, and then she gets it done,” Pogue said.
Nasello is also a preceptor, which means she teaches other nurses and takes them under her wing. Her colleagues and those she knows say she doesn’t just want to impart knowledge in younger nurses, she wants them to completely understand the important work they’re doing and learn to be everything for every patient.
Pogue says that’s an important role for a medicalsurgical nurse. For example, nurses typically have five patients at a time, which gives them 12 minutes every hour to be everything for every patient every day.
“You have to be the center of their universe -- hold their hand and touch their heart and educate them and inspire them to get well. That’s what it’s all about — that connection,” Pogue said.
That’s what the medicalsurgical nurse is all about.
“That’s Jesi,” Pogue said.