Celebrating our extraordinary nurses

Carol Buhler, RN, is a senior nurse manager at our appointment and advice call center in Sacramento, California. She delivered her daughter, Jaclyn Montano, a twin, at a Kaiser Permanente hospital. Montano now also works as a Kaiser Permanente nurse.

Jaclyn Montano, RN, works in the intensive care unit at our Roseville Medical Center, in Roseville, California.

The mother-daughter duo spans 2 generations of Kaiser Permanente nursing and care.

Buhler first interviewed for a nursing position at Kaiser Permanente in 1982. Soon after beginning work, Buhler went into early labor.

She safely delivered her twins at a Kaiser Permanente hospital.

The twins spent 30 days in intensive care. Their care team followed their progress closely for a year.

“Kaiser Permanente saved their lives. I will always be grateful,” Buher said between tears.

Montano has a care story of her own. At age 8, Montano’s eldest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. She received treatment at our Roseville Medical Center, in Roseville, California. “They saved my child’s life,” Montano said.

Her daughter is now healthy and excelling in her high school life.

Neelima Tigulla, RN, is a nurse manager of the medical-surgical units at our Orange County Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California. 

Under her leadership, the 2 hospital units she oversees have reduced pressure injuries and infections for several years by working together with multidisciplinary teams, clinical nurses, and champions who educate their peers on preventing pressure injuries in hospital patients.

One unit went from October 2019 to October 2024 without a single pressure injury. The second unit has had no pressure injuries since November 2022.

Tigulla’s nursing teams also reduced their number of catheter-associated urinary tract infections. They used the same strategy of training their peers to become champions of this work. In one unit, there have been no infections in nearly 6 years. In the second unit, which started the effort a few years later, there have been no infections in almost 3 years.

Elizabeth Peper, RN, is a primary care nurse at our Longmont Medical Offices in Longmont, Colorado.

She’s also the granddaughter of a former board member of Kaiser Permanente.

“I grew up knowing Kaiser Permanente and hearing about Kaiser Permanente,” Peper said. “My grandpa was a board member. He was so proud of me for coming to work for Kaiser Permanente. He always loved Kaiser Permanente. He had it for his family.”

Now, Peper is proud to be part of a team that works together to meet the needs of its patients.

“We do what we call ‘creative access,’” she said. “It’s a big team effort. We try to meet patients where they are.”

Here’s an example of how “creative access” works:

• A patient came in with his wife, who happened to fall right before his scheduled appointment. She commented on the fall during his appointment.
• Peper and the rest of the care team quickly stepped in to take the wife’s vital signs and assess her injuries.
• Another nurse scheduled a same-day doctor appointment for her.
• The quick care prevented a trip to emergency room.

“Everybody pitches in willingly to do their part,” Peper said.

Suha Charney, RN, is a clinical nurse in orthopedics and podiatry at our Caton Hill Medical Center in Woodbridge, Virginia.

She cares for patients’ wounds and collaborates with other clinicians to provide optimal care to patients. She’s particularly proud of the work she does as the primary nurse in the lower limb clinic in the podiatry department.

As of 2022, patients who see a podiatrist can not only get basic wound care but also specialized attention from a nurse who can focus on podiatry wounds.

“The biggest reward is being able to see patients who have chronic wounds actually start to heal because they’re getting specialized care,” Charney said.

Becky Farinas, RN, is a primary care staff nurse at our Waipio Medical Office in Waipio, Hawaii.

She’s proud of her nursing team members and their efforts to decrease the number of people who visit the emergency room after receiving wound care.

She and her nursing team led a procedure change to call patients 2 weeks after their initial treatment instead of the usual 30 days. Her team also created a way for patients to connect with a nurse more easily after their initial care.

These changes started in January 2024. Since then, the number of patients who visited the emergency room for wound care dropped by 50%.

The practice has now been rolled out across Hawaii.

Kaitlyn Maib, RN, is an oncology infusion nurse at our Oncology Infusion Center in Tacoma, Washington.

She knows how important it is to have a team working together for the patient.

For example, Maib recently worked with several clinicians to improve care for a patient. The patient has a condition that prevents her body from making enough new blood cells. That meant the patient needed blood transfusions once or twice a week.

However, after consultations with her physicians, the patient started taking a medication that decreased her need for blood transfusions.

For 5 years, the patient had been receiving blood infusions through a long, thin tube inserted through a vein in her arm. This tube is called a PICC, or peripherally inserted central catheter.

“The oncologist started the medication process, and I was able to have the tough conversations with her and suggested that we talk to the doctor about removing the PICC line,” Maib said. “The patient couldn’t thank me enough for helping her understand the risks and benefits for getting that line out.”

Without the PICC line, the patient has more freedom of movement. And, she doesn’t have to come in for weekly dressing changes by a nursing team.

Donnedria Coleman, RN, is a telehealth nurse for Kaiser Permanente in Georgia.

She’s part of a team that works together to improve patient care. One of the team’s projects is to make sure 60% of phone calls from members get answered within 60 seconds. In 2024, the team exceeded that goal by answering 87% of calls within 60 seconds.

The role of a telehealth nurse is demanding, Coleman says. You never know what kind of care needs your patients will have. That’s why she and her co-workers take care of their own well-being — they find it to be just as important as caring for patients.

Every month, her team does a virtual team-building activity that promotes good health. One activity promoted good nutrition and balanced meals for healthy eating. For 3 and a half months, nearly everyone on her team participated. At the end of the activity, more than half the team had made long-lasting changes. Taking care of themselves ensures optimal engagement at work and better care for our patients.

Narlyn Llamas, RN, is a nursing professional development specialist at our Roseville Medical Center in Roseville, California.

She collaborated with other nurses to encourage 19 nurses in the Roseville area to complete a bachelor’s degree or higher and 49 nurses to earn professional board certifications in 2024. Llamas credits this achievement to all 13 nurses on the Professional Development Council, which she co-chairs with 2 other nurses.

She and the nurses on the council created preparation courses to support board certification. They also helped educate their peers. For example, they shared information on the value of education and on the tuition reimbursement that Kaiser Permanente offers.

“The nurses got used to seeing us come around,” Llamas said, “and it made them feel comfortable enough to ask other nurses they worked with, ‘When are you doing your bachelor’s degree?’ One of my passions is helping nurses advance.”

One of Llamas’ most impressive achievements was helping our Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center earn Age-Friendly Health System recognition. This recognition, given by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, recognizes medical facilities that are committed to following best practices in caring for older adults.

Llamas was the driving force behind the initiative to earn the recognition. She coordinated with geriatric resource nurses, local leaders, and stakeholders.

Mandy Ellis, RN, is a pediatric advice nurse for Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon.

She started at Kaiser Permanente as a medical assistant. After kidney damage from preeclampsia during her pregnancy, she got connected to specialty care through Kaiser Permanente. She was on dialysis during her last 2 terms as a nursing student and first year as a nurse.

“My kidney decline was gradual,” Ellis said. “By the time I was ready for a kidney transplant, I had started nursing school with a goal of earning my associate’s degree.”

The nursing school program was sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and The Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust. The Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust offers financial support and professional development resources to Kaiser Permanente nurses represented by the Labor Management Partnership.

The nursing school program accepted a total of 24 Kaiser Permanente employees. One of the program’s students turned out to be Ellis’ kidney donor.

They found each other after Ellis gave a presentation on her kidney disease during one of their classes.

“She literally came up to me right after class and took me to a private area. She said, ‘When the time comes, I want you to know I will give you my kidney.’ I went through my kidney transplant after completing nursing school and working for one year,” Ellis said.

Ellis went on to earn her bachelor’s degree also with the support of The Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust.

“I owe my life to my kidney donor — and indirectly to Ben Hudnall and Kaiser Permanente,” Ellis said.