Our pediatric emergency department’s outstanding nursing team has been named a 2026 winner of the Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award, which recognizes the best emergency rooms across the country. Ours is the only pediatric emergency room in Virginia to receive the honor.
When a child comes into the ED, our providers want to gather all the information they can to make the right diagnosis and make our little patients feel better as soon as possible. So, when the ENA wants to find out which nursing teams are the best at what they do, their investigation is just as thorough.
According to the ENA, their Lantern Award “highlights departments that incorporate evidence-based practices and innovative approaches into emergency care, serving as a visible symbol of dedication to patient safety, staff well-being and professional excellence in emergency nursing.”
Setting high standards in emergency care
“Managing the wide-ranging and often complex diagnoses in a pediatric emergency department while caring for each child and family with clinical skill and compassion is no small feat,” explained our president Elias Neujahr, “and our nurses do it with grace 24/7.”
No one knows that better than the leader who serves on the frontlines with the team.
“I came to the ED in October 2024 and quickly realized these people were amazing,” recalled Elaine Biedler, MSN, RN, nurse manager for the pediatric emergency department. “They were doing so many things, and I wanted to make sure they were being recognized.”
What does it take to win an ENA Lantern Award?
There are so many criteria the ENA considers before choosing its winners that not only include how our team treats patients and their families, but how our nurses support them with processes like pain-reducing strategies, minimizing wait times, implementing child life into our care and guaranteeing safety. The ENA examines staffing plans, nurse education and community outreach as well as patient satisfaction statistics. But behind all those facts and figures are our people who make the care stand out.
“I’ve got nurses who’ve been here for decades,” explained Beidler. “People come here, they stay and they do great things. It’s where I would take my kids if they needed a pediatric emergency department because it’s where I would feel safest having them.”
The doctors who work alongside the ED nursing team wholeheartedly agree.
“Our nurses are superheroes with superpowers,” shared Dr. Judy Barto, our pediatric emergency medicine quality and safety medical director. “To work in our environment, you must be motivated, resilient, patient, smart, thick-skinned and decisive, while at the same time being a creative problem solver and multi-tasker. But above all else, you have to love children. Not a day goes by that I don't think I am one of the luckiest doctors to work with these PEM nurses. They make my job so much easier.”
The recognition lasts 3 years, and of the record-breaking 126 emergency departments honored this year, only 10 were specific to pediatrics. No other hospital in central Virginia made the list.
“Our nurses go above and beyond every day,” said Dr. Barto. “There is nothing more comforting than walking into the chaotic ED and looking around to see both seasoned and new nurses that you trust working together. You just know that no matter what happens, it is going to be OK.”