COEUR d’ALENE — Alicia Glover has a heart for cardiac patients. 

The feeling is mutual. 

Glover, a registered nurse, has worked with heart patients for seven years at Kootenai Health in both the ICU and the progressive care unit, where all open-heart surgery patients spend time. 

For her efforts to create a clear and comprehensive handbook for local heart patients and their families, Glover was recently named Mended Hearts Chapter 322 Nurse of the Year. The annual award honors individuals who have a meaningful impact in advancing the Mended Hearts mission to inspire hope within the heart community.   

Mended Hearts is a nonprofit support group for individuals who live with heart disease. The group has hundreds of chapters nationwide, including one in Coeur d’Alene. 

“It’s made up of folks who have had open heart surgery in the past,” said member Earle Ruddach. “We visit heart patients while they’re in the hospital and try to encourage them. We understand what they’re going through.” 

The group has a positive impact on local patients. 

“For a lot of patients, it’s a good reassurance that this is not necessarily life-ending,” Glover said. “There is hope for good outcomes.” 

In the past, Ruddach said, the group noticed that patients were buried under flurries of handouts and other information from different disciplines, some of it overlapping and some of it inconsistent. 

“Most of the time, (patients) were overwhelmed,” Glover said. 

Mended Hearts members shared with Kootenai Health a concept for a single, comprehensive guide for heart patients that would make it easier for patients and caregivers to keep it all straight. 

Glover took on the project, which proved to be long-term. Even for her, the volume of information, much less making sure it was cohesive and straightforward, made it a challenge. 

“It was pretty overwhelming at first,” she said. “No wonder people were confused.” 

Glover ultimately produced a 47-page guide that contains a wealth of information, from recommendations on physical therapy, occupational therapy and cardiac rehabilitation to nutritional information, wound care instructions and much more. 

The handbook also familiarizes patients with Kootenai Health’s surgeons and the hospital itself, boosting patients’ confidence in the care they would receive. 

“A lot of times, people didn’t necessarily think their local hospital would be the best place for open heart surgery,” Glover said. “We included information about what care Kootenai Health could provide. It helps them be more comfortable.” 

Since patients began receiving the guide last November, Glover said the hospital has received positive feedback from the community. 

“I’ve had a lot of family members tell me it was very helpful,” she said. “While their loved one was in the ICU, they were able to read this book and get comfortable with the process. It gave them more peace of mind.” 

Making information more accessible to patients and caregivers is already having a positive effect. For example, with more heart patients reading how to care for their surgical wounds, Kootenai Health is seeing fewer cases of infection. 

“It’s a huge achievement,” Glover said. 

For her work creating the handbook, the Coeur d’Alene chapter of Mended Hearts nominated Glover for the organization’s Nurse of the Year award. 

“She worked hard on it and we wanted to reward her,” Ruddach said. 

Glover said she was humbled and grateful to learn that the volunteers had nominated her. 

“I don’t typically like a lot of recognition for myself,” she said. “I like to do things and keep quiet about it.” 

She said the win made her feel like she’s making a difference through her job. 

“I love what I do,” she said. “If I can have an impact on even just one family and their loved ones, that’s huge. That I can impact so many is incredible.”