Not just clowning around

Linda Stigler, R.N., CMS, isn’t a stranger to the inpatient floors of the hospital. She’s worked them for 29 years after all and is currently a nursing supervisor of one floor at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford.

Stigler recently was named to this year’s Great 100 Nurses list. The Texas Nurses Association and the Dallas/Fort Worth Nurse Executives annually sponsor the “Great 100 Nurses,” which honors registered nurses in the D/FW area who exemplify excellence in the art and science of nursing. Nurses are nominated by their peers, and may only be named to the list once in their career.

Stigler’s calling to nursing came early in life. She knew by 16 years-old that was where she wanted to be.

“I enjoyed helping people and taking care of them when they were ill,” she said. “I was particularly fond of helping the elderly. I have always had a spirit for caregiving.”

She’s carried that spirit for helping the elderly throughout her life. She’s currently the “person to call/go to/ask” for the elderly in her church, offering counsel 24/7, checking blood pressures, explaining instructions from physicians and tending to other needs.

Stigler believes that appropriate humor and laughter is healing, a quality that her nominator said along with “having an overactive funny bone and a heart the size of Alaska, made her a perfect candidate for Clown College Admission.” Stigler has taken classes such as character development, improvisation, makeup, pantomime, gag development, prop and costume construction, acrobatics, dance and the physical skills of slaps and falls. Those skills help to enhance her ability to utilize effective humor to bring a smile and laughter from patients in nursing homes and their family as well as peers.

Her ability to cheer people up is a treasured quality among other nurses on her unit and the physicians on the medical staff that she works with.

In all seriousness though, Stigler said she treasures the recognition of being named a Great 100 Nurse.

“Being a Great 100 Nurse is just the “icing on the cake,” she said. ‘It gives me inspiration to continue to serve as a caregiver in my community.”

In all, Texas Health nurses earned 26 of the 100 spots on the coveted list, with seven spots recognizing Texas Health HEB nurses.