Great nurses leave a void in the lives of their families, friends and patients when they pass away, but they also leave legacies.
Karala Boynton and B.J. (Brenda Jo) Kramer were among the 332 nurses nominated for this year’s AJC Jobs Nursing Excellence Awards. They both died last year, but the inspiration and memories of their nursing is not forgotten.
Janice L. Cook, a patient at Grady Memorial Hospital’s cardiac/coumadin clinic since 2000, regrets that she didn’t nominate her favorite nurse sooner. After Boynton was killed in a car accident last October, Cook decided to nominate her posthumously.
Cook takes coumadin for blood clots in her legs and is a frequent visitor to the clinic. She appreciated Boynton’s professionalism and caring.
“Mrs. Boynton had a gentle spirit and a ready smile that could make an otherwise dreary hospital visit turn into a warm visit with a cherished friend,” Cook said. “Even if she had to chastise a patient for not taking her meds properly or missing appointments, you always felt that whatever she said to you was said in love.”
Cook felt comfortable sharing the stresses of her personal life with Boynton. “She always had a way to lift you up.”
Nursing was Boynton’s passion and her ministry, said Willie Boynton, her husband of 34 years.
“She was a Christian and always looked for any opportunity to provide healing at work. If someone didn’t have money for medications, she’d give it to them,” he said.
Boynton grew up in Americus and earned her nursing degree from Georgia Southwestern College in 1976. After the couple moved to Atlanta, she worked at Grady for more than 30 years in the orthopedic unit and then in the cardiac/coumadin clinic.
“Nursing fit her perfectly. She was a very outgoing person and never really met a stranger,” Willie Boynton said. “She loved people, life, baseball, and believed in the power of prayer.
“She always felt like the Lord had healed her from an aneurysm after our second son was born. She was grateful that He had given her another 20-plus years, and so were we.”
Boynton was like a mentor to Lakisha Bentley, a medical assistant in the unit.
“You could talk to her about anything, and she knew so much,” Bentley said. “The hospital sent her to coumadin seminars and she’d come back and teach the other nurses what she had learned.
“Our clinic is large and busy, but she made people feel special because she took the time to talk to them as she cared for them.”
“B.J. Kramer was nursing,” wrote former co-worker Angela Day, 3 North ICU nurse manager at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. “She defined nursing not only in words such as, ‘It’s about doing the right thing and making sure the patient is the center of care,’ but in her contribution to the nursing profession as a critical care nurse, an educator, a preceptor and mentor for other nurses.
“Her nursing deserves to be celebrated. Even though she lost her battle with ovarian cancer last year, she remained strong and positive to the end.”
Day credits Kramer as the reason she completed her master’s degree this year. Although it was a struggle to take mostly online classes around her job while raising four children, Day was determined.
“B.J. was proud to have completed her own MSN degree in 2007, and she always told me it was our professional obligation to continue to expand our knowledge,” Day said.
At work, Kramer focused on training recent nursing graduates and orienting new staff to intensive care practice.
“She implemented evidence-based practice, wrote nursing articles and created seminars. We still teach her signs and symptoms of acute deterioration class,” Day said.
A woman of strong faith, Kramer extended her care to the community. As a member of her local American Association of Critical Care Nurses chapter, Kramer organized the collection of care packages for troops serving in Iraq. She helped raise $1,000 in Kroger medication gift cards to be given out at homeless shelters. She also volunteered for mission trips to Honduras with Woodstock Community Church.
A wife and mother, Kramer felt called to be a nurse after helping her father recover from open-heart surgery.
“I was in middle school at the time, and when I decided to become a nurse in high school, she told me how hard it was physically and emotionally,” said Amie Wilensky, Kramer’s daughter. “After shadowing her at work, I knew I could do it and earned my degree in 2002.”
Sharing a profession and a workplace was a unique experience for Wilensky, an ICU nurse at WellStar Kennestone.
“She was my mom and my mentor,” she said. “Sometimes we’d sit and share stories after work. It was nice to have someone to talk to and vent with — someone who understood.
“As a nurse, my mother taught me about compassion and empathy. She showed me what it was like to be present and really there for the patient, to be an advocate. I’m really touched to have her honored in this way.”
