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Find the Good

Lisa Kilgard, RN on Med One

“I generally try to find the good in everything. It annoys my husband. Drives him crazy,” says Lisa Kilgard, an RN on Med One at St. Cloud Hospital. “You just can’t go with the bad stuff. You have to think of the good stuff and keep pushing forward.”

That seems to be Lisa Kilgard’s life philosophy. Find the good. It began at nine years old when an accident resulted in a long stay at the St. Cloud Hospital.

Photo of Lisa Kilgard gowning up

To this day, I remember falling off the top of a backhoe.

“To this day, I remember falling off the top of a backhoe,” Lisa recalls, “This kid, Max, tried to catch me. He put out his arms, but in trying to catch me, he flipped me around and I fell on my legs instead of my head. I was brought here on a piece of plywood in the back of a station wagon.”


Photo of Lisa Kilgard RN at Covid Patient Room Door

There was one nurse who took really good care of me.

Lisa was put into traction for two and a half weeks. Her parents were not able to stay with her. Though her grandmother stayed with Lisa as much as she could, there was one nurse who took really good care of her. “She braided my hair every day that she worked. I looked forward to her coming, and I was not the best patient,” Lisa remembers. “I would throw my Barbie doll out into the hallway because somebody would have to pick it up and check on me.” 

To this day, my purpose has never strayed from me.

“I very clearly remember deciding that I was going to be like that nurse who came in and braided my hair. To this day, my purpose has never strayed from me — through COVID and everything else.”

Backroads cover art for episode two titled Recharge

Backroads is a new CentraCare podcast for us and about us. Each episode reveals something that connects us all. 

Listen to Lisa Kilgard’s story in her own words:

Lisa wanted to become a nurse to make others feel like she felt when she was a nine-year-old girl. “I remember the nurses that would leave the Barbie doll lay on the floor. And I remember the nurses who would pick that Barbie doll up. I wanted to be one of those nurses that picked up the Barbie doll. I’m over 40 now, and I remember that hospital stay like it was yesterday.”

Close-up photo of RN Lisa Kilgard with a Covid patient

COVID really made me understand what I was seeking as a nurse my whole life.

She also wonders what could have been. “Had Max not tried to catch me when I fell that day, I could be in a wheelchair. I could not be here,” she says. “I just appreciate all of it. And honestly, that is why I became a nurse. Why would you want any other job?”

The last two years have brought her purpose into even greater focus. “COVID really made me understand what I was seeking as a nurse my whole life,” Lisa explains. “I thought I understood it before, but during COVID we were asked to just take care of patients. A lot of other things were taken away, so we were able to just do what we needed to do.”

I just needed to keep thinking back to when I was little…

Lisa Kilgard is living proof that out of misfortune, enormous good can come. “My middle daughter was born with craniosynostosis,” she reveals, a condition in which a baby’s skull joins together too early. “We’ve been through so many cranial surgeries. When she had her first surgery 13 years ago, I just needed to keep thinking back to when I was little and what kept me going. And it was those nice nurses.

“I needed to find in every nurse how they were trying their best — doing the best they were able to do,” Lisa explains. 

Photo of Lisa Kilgard at the bedside

Niceness is what people remember.

“When patients on Med One need their hair braided,” Lisa says, “I’m the first one to offer. I get the snarls out of their hair not because of what they look like, but having my hair braided always made me feel better. 

“Lying in bed with a full body cast from my chest to the bottom of my right leg and from my waist down my left leg, there were so many people who helped. And what I learned from that whole ordeal is that you just remember the people who were nice. Niceness is what people remember.”

We needed to depend on each other for emotional support.

Today, Lisa’s attention focuses on her Med One work family. “We were tight before COVID. We felt like a family already. Then when COVID came, there was more than just patients who needed stuff. Our friends, our coworkers — we all needed something. As much as we were giving to our patients and doing for our patients, we needed to depend on each other for emotional support. I think it made us a lot closer. 

“There’s been a lot of heartache and struggles. When you let the struggles get you, it takes the wind out of the sails. That’s why you have to find the good.”

2 comments

  1. Carol says:

    What a great story. Thankyou for sharing.
    A little kindness goes a long way!

  2. Skye says:

    Good for you! The world needs more “nice” people.

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