When COVID-19 emerged in 2020, MultiCare Good Samaritan Foundation partnered with generous donors and local businesses to lift up MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital staff as they gave their all caring for their community.
Support included coffee, massage chairs, meals, baked goods, compassion fatigue workshops, comfort therapies like music and more.
Most recently, the Foundation sought to give Good Samaritan a safe space to grieve all that transpired during the COVID-19 pandemic by helping make nurse manager Alyssa Kuwik’s vision for a Blue Flag Memorial a reality.
Alyssa was inspired by MultiCare Valley Hospital’s COVID-19 memorial and candlelight vigil. She worked with Nicole McKnight, staff chaplain, and Justin Worthington, operations manager of site security and hospitality services, to bring the concept to Puyallup.
Employees were invited to place blue flags with words encapsulating their experiences into the lawn and come together for an interactive ceremony to acknowledge and heal from the past three years.
Alyssa welcomed a large crowd of Good Samaritan staff on Thursday, May 4, 2023. She encouraged everyone to move from internalization and compartmentalization to collectively pausing, reflecting and then relinquishing memories of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nurse manager Kristin Cross, Zeeba Mathews, MD, and COO Jim Bradley also spoke. They shared the story of ICU nurse Haley Goodson, the pandemic through the lens of the palliative care unit and the message that with great change is great hope.
Chaplain Nicole followed the speakers, calling for a moment of silence before more flags were filled out.
You can see the blue flags dotting the courtyard and surrounding areas of Good Samaritan Hospital.
