As Albany Memorial Hospital Clinical Resources Manager Karen Julian escorted nurse Esther Rappold through the hospital parking lot, Rappold couldn’t stop asking questions. She had been told she was headed to a patient readmission avoidance meeting.
“She had 5,000 questions. ‘What time is the meeting? Shouldn’t we be going quicker?’” Julian said. “It was unbelievable getting her here. Now I know why she is so good at patient assessment … because she asks so many questions.”
The urgency of Rappold’s questions only further emphasized her dedication to the hospital, which she has walked the halls of for the past 60 years.
Only a few hundred feet away from the parking lot, about 50 of Rappold’s friends, family and coworkers waited for the 80-year-old nurse to walk through the Conklin Conference Room’s door. They had gathered to celebrate Rappold’s six decades of service at the hospital – a record-breaking number of years out of the hospital’s entire 900 staff members.
As the door opened, everyone yelled “Surprise!” Afterward, a seemingly timid, yet surprised Rappold hugged and thanked the crowd.
“This is very well deserved for her,” Don, one of Rappold’s sons, said. “Usually parents are proud of their kids, but we’re very proud of her.”
Sixty years at the hospital and still going strong, it seems like Rappold has hardly taken a day off in her life, minus a few weeks after giving birth to each of her three sons. Growing up the youngest of 10 in Coeymans, Rappold said many of her sisters were involved in health care in some form or another. At 17, she said, she made the “best choice I could make” by following in one of her sister’s footsteps and enrolling at the Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. Shortly after graduating, she jumped on board as operating room nurse in May of 1953 at Albany Memorial Hospital, later moving on to different positions until her current one as clinical resources management assistant.
Julian, who has worked with Rappold for more than 25 years, said she has been “proud and privileged” to work with Rappold.
“She has taught me everything I know,” Julian said.
Patient readmission avoidance, Julian said, is one of the many things Rappold has worked at diligently over the years. Julian said the hospital has been trying to prevent readmissions, and a main component of that is having strong communication and thorough paperwork.
“Esther does a fabulous job with that. Everything and anything there is to know when a patient leaves … she not only completes the regulatory paperwork, but goes beyond that by making patients and families feel comfortable,” Julian said. “She’s very compassionate, very thorough. We’re just so lucky to have her.”
Going above and beyond seems to be natural for Rappold. Many times on patient’s forms, she’ll add in specifics about the person to maximize their comfort. Julian said sometimes Rappold will add in “if a patient likes a backrub at a certain time of night” or “a glass of milk.”
That compassion and care, Rappold said, is something she likes to give because it’s the type of care she’d like to receive if she were in their position.
“I think of the patients as if I were there in that bed, what I would want to happen to me,” Rappold said.
And over the years, Rappold has spent a time or two at the hospital as a patient herself. Don recalled one snowy day when his mother had been called into work and the roads were bad. As she made her way through the hospital’s parking lot, she slipped, fell and broke her ankle.
“She came to work that day as a nurse and wound up as a patient,” he said. “She was very dedicated to coming into work. She was always here, always wanted to be here when it was her shift.”
While she was surprised by the party itself, Rappold was moved to tears when she was presented with a brand new nursing cap, which serves as a symbol for the industry’s “ageless values of dedication, wisdom, faith and honesty,” Julian said. Rappold wears her own cap every day to work, honoring the traditional look that she had sported when she began working at the hospital. Rappold was also awarded a metal parking sign to mark her own parking space, an award for her service and a free meal plan.
Albany Memorial Hospital Executive Director Glen Cooper has worked with the hospital’s parent company, St. Peter’s Health Partners, for about 12 years, and although he’s only been executive director at the hospital for one year, he said he’s gotten to know Rappold very well.
“She’s just a role model for staff with the way she interacts with the patients and how pleasant she is with coworkers,” Cooper said. “The technical side (of a hospital) is a given … but it’s the compassionate side that makes a difference.”
Rappold’s compassionate side continues outside of work, too.
“What can you say? She’s just there for everybody and everything,” Rappold’s son Chris said. “Friends, relatives, you name it. School functions, baseball games, family affairs. So many people call her Aunt Esther.”
One reason why Rappold has stayed at the hospital for so long has been because of the support of her coworkers and staff. This past December, Rappold’s husband of 57 years died. She said her patients and coworkers were “very kind and generous” to her.
Rappold works part time at the hospital now, and she’s not sure when she’ll retire.
“I’ll stay for as long as they’ll have me,” she said.