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Who wants a free T-shirt? Mayo Clinic nurses create contest to get transplant patients walking again

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Published  September 25, 2025 7:44pm CDT
Health Care
FOX 9
Mayo Clinic nurses get transplant patients walking again

Mayo Clinic nurses get transplant patients walking again

Mayo Clinic nurses have created a contest to get transplant patients walking again. FOX 9's Tim Blotz has the story.

The Brief

    • Mayo Clinic organ transplant doctors and nurses were having a tough time getting patients to get up and walk after receiving a newly donated kidney, liver, or pancreas.
    • The nurses decided to create a contest: Walk a mile around the Methodist Hospital transplant floor and win a free T-shirt.
    • Since the contest began, the transplant team has seen more than a five-fold increase in patients completing the Methodist Mile and have given out 650 T-shirts.

ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX 9) - Sometimes the biggest impacts come from small and simple ideas. In the case of the organ transplant floor at Mayo Clinic’s Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, the challenge was to get patients up and walking around after receiving their new kidney, liver, or pancreas.

"They have to be up and moving," said registered nurse Cortney Kozel. "They have to be safely moving on their own, so up and walking."

The goal of doctors is to have them walk at least a mile around the transplant floor. Few of them did.

The solution

What they're saying:

The nurses on the medical team came up with the idea of a contest.

"We created a program called the Methodist Mile," said fellow registered nurse Rebecca Dahlin. "If a patient walks a mile during their initial transplant stay, we give them a T-shirt."

The black T-shirt says "Finisher—The Methodist Mile" on the back with a map of a walking path around the transplant floor.

"I started my laps right away that first night, and I’ve been doing them ever since," said Debbie Koerber, a kidney transplant recipient from Illinois. "I’m always looking for T-shirts. I live in T-shirts and that was my quest, and plus, it makes you feel better."

By the numbers:

In six months before the nurses started the Methodist Mile, fewer than 50 patients actually completed their required steps. In the six months after the T-shirt contest, it jumped three-fold to 150. In the first six months of 2025, it soared to 274.

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