Nurses are at the heart of any neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Laurel Lagenaur saw this firsthand when she developed preeclampsia at 28 weeks into her pregnancy and delivered her son, Alex, six-and-a-half weeks early at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.
“I felt like the care that he received from the NICU was stellar,” Laurel says. “When you have a 3-pound infant, you’re naturally concerned. The nurses were just so calming and caring. They did 99 percent of the work. People don’t appreciate how much work they actually do.”
Wanting to honor and celebrate the nurses who helped her family in a time of need, Laurel established a donor advised fund and began directing philanthropic support to NICU nurses at the hospital where her son was born. Laurel’s gifts are helping to train nurses to best utilize advancements that improve care for the smallest and most vulnerable patients. Over the years, her gifts have supported the opening of a novel Simulation Innovation Center, National Magnet Conference attendance, leadership training for internal nursing promotions, Center for Professional Excellence and Inquiry coursework, nurses’ appreciation events and fellowship support for clinical nurses to pursue research. Her gifts have directly improved the wellbeing and professional development for frontline nursing staff, in turn benefiting more than 1,400 babies treated each year in the NICU at Packard Children’s Hospital.
