Amanda Fleeger
May 2024
Amanda
Fleeger
,
BSN, RN, CPEN
Emergency Department, HDVCH
Corewell Health: Butterworth, Blodgett and Helen DeVos Children's Hospital
Grand Rapids
,
MI
United States

 

 

 

She takes feedback from the unit to heart, and advocates for our unit and our work when larger entity and system improvement work is happening.
Amanda is an exemplary leader and demonstrates all of the DAISY criteria in her work. She balances her duties as the Nurse Manager for the ED with stepping into patient care and Charge Nurse holes in the department constantly. If there is a high-acuity patient or extremely high volume of patients, she can be found actively working on the unit helping take care of our patients so that the team is supported and knows she has their back. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a very sick patient come in to the ED and she took a 5-patient assignment so that two other nurses could go into the Priority 1 patient. This demonstrates not only how actively she is here for the unit, but that she also recognized an opportunity for one of our newer nurses to have a more educational patient care experience by freeing them to go in to that patient with someone who was more experienced. Traumas and high-priority patients are difficult to manage and can be so overwhelming for new staff, and it is easier in some ways for our experienced staff (including Amanda herself) to jump into those rooms but that short term outlook does not improve our unit's overall competency and comfort with these types of encounters. Instead of doing that, by taking a full assignment of lower-acuity patients, she created a situation for staff to grow together and challenge themselves professionally in a supported and more controlled environment. This global view is just one of the things Amanda excels at in her work. She takes feedback from the unit to heart, and advocates for our unit and our work when larger entity and system improvement work is happening. She is compassionate about our patients and our staff. Anyone who has been in a meeting with her can feel that she truly cares about the ED and is actively working to improve care delivery in our space and ensure our staff feel safe and supported. She has been spearheading work with our behavioral health patients (who stay in our Mod 3 area) including operational changes in staffing, regular rounds with Psychiatry and providers, active follow-through on suggestions or safety concerns that are raised by the staff in the area, constantly advocating for facilities-based changes to the mod and security presence, and I have seen her more than once actively step in and de-escalate patients with Safety Care techniques when BHTs or other RNs have been overwhelmed. Emergency Department staff tend to have big personalities, but Amanda makes a dedicated effort to get to know everyone and to manage this team as a calm, professional, strong presence. She has worked tirelessly for this unit for years, and it is not always a glamorous nor appreciated role to be the Manager, but she always keeps our mission and our why in mind. As my leader, she has always encouraged me to grow and improve my own work but in a kind and compassionate way that makes me know she truly cares about me. When I think about our values and our mission, she comes immediately to mind as exemplifying them day in and out. She encourages me to be more open-minded, to empathize with other staff and the patients more, and to always think about how our work directly relates to our patients' experiences here.