Lynette Wardwell, BSN, RN

Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit

Lynette Wardwell not only has expertise in her own nursing practice, she has expertise as a teacher for nurses at all levels of development, especially those just starting out in the profession.

“Coming into the ICU as a newly licensed nurse involves a steep and challenging learning curve that Lynette helped me conquer,” said Peter Frye, BSN, RN, EMT-P, the third newly-licensed nurse mentored by Wardwell in the Neuroscience ICU. “Seeing how patients and their families respond so positively and consistently to Lynette’s kind nature is a powerful example of her compassion and caring.”

Wardwell’s love of nursing permeates the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, which she joined in 1997 when now nurse manager Shaun Golden, BSN, RN, was a nurse in-charge of the brand new unit. “Never flustered and always willing to teach, Lynette became a pivotal and trusted colleague I could always count on,” he said. “She quietly and thoughtfully guided me in my new role to ensure I would succeed.”

She did the same for the newly hired nurses when the unit expanded from seven to 10 beds. “Always putting her patient first, she would show new staff what it means to be a professional nurse,” Golden said.

And in 2004, when the unit doubled to 20 beds, Wardwell again stepped into the role of mentor and preceptor for new to practice nurses as part of the new Intensive Care Newly Licensed Nurse Program.

“In 2004, for the first time newly licensed nurses were going to be hired directly into BWH ICU staff nurse positions. To be successful this program needed to partner with ICU preceptors willing to enter into a supportive, dedicated professional coaching relationship with a nurse new to clinical practice. The relationship is characterized by shared goals including developing clinical practice, within a specific work environment and becoming socialized into the profession, unit culture and as a member of the health care team. Lynette enthusiastically volunteered to be part of our new program and every year since has mentored a newly licensed nurse,” said Mary Pennington, MSN, RN, program coordinator for the Center for Nursing Excellence. “Her skillful teaching, coaching and mentoring of new graduate nurses allowed them to become supremely successful and valuable members of the critical care staff.”

Nurse educator Vincent Vacca, MSN, RN, CCRN, who nominated Wardwell for this award, also praised her teaching and mentoring abilities.

“Perhaps most important of all the remarkable qualities that Lynette possesses, and inspires in her orientees, are her caring practices,” Vacca said. “Through her intuitive and natural abilities to care for and to care about her patients and families, Lynette’s orientees are witnesses and beneficiaries of being mentored by a nurse who practices clinical bedside nursing with both love and grace.”

Wardwell also has worked in Interventional Radiology, ICU Float Pool, Thoracic Surgery and Surgical ICU at BWH. Prior to joining BWH, Wardwell served in staff nurse positions at Waltham Visiting Nurse Association and New England Medical Center. She received her BSN from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.