Alaska Regional Hospital spends week celebrating their staff members

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Staff members at Alaska Regional Hospital said that it has been a tough two years throughout the pandemic, dealing with changing COVID-19 protocols and different variants of the virus. But each day, the Alaska Regional Hospital showed up ready to take on the day.

“Over the last two years, our staff have continued to show up, week after week, day after day, hour of hour,” said Alaska Regional CEO Jennifer Opsut.

This month, in honor of National Hospital Week and Nurses week, the hospital wants to remind their staff how thankful they are.

“We have a fabulous team,” Opsut said. “They are amazing, providing high quality care from the front door to the Alaskans inpatient stay. And they are here, showing up every day.”

This week, Alaska Regional celebrated their staff with daily special events, such as free trail mix and an ice cream social. On Wednesday, the hospital hosted a breakfast for staff members and passed out blankets.

“From the front door, all the way to the nurses, from EVS to dietary. It is really important for us to celebrate the high quality care that they have provided day after day,” Optus said.

In addition, this month, the hospital presented the national Daisy Award to one of their team members. The Daisy Award is given to a nurse that was nominated by a fellow staff member of a patient that went over and beyond their job duties. This month, Elizabeth Coste, a registered nurse in the hospital’s rehab department was one of 52 nominated nurses at Alaska Regional Hospital. She was the only nurse to receive the award.

“I was like wow. I was in shock,” Coste said. “Wow. Why? How? It was just so many things going in mind, that, it was just amazing.”

Staff said Coste was awarded the award due to her patient care.

“She took extra time to speak to this patient in Spanish and developed their relationship on a really personal and compassionate level,” said Alaska Regional’s Chief Nursing Officer Ashlyn Hall.

But for Coste, she was just doing her job.

“I just do that with all my patients,” Coste said.

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