Delaney is the kind of leader that all nurses dream of having. Since the moment I met Delaney, I knew that she was someone that I could count on, and I was correct. Delaney stepped into an ANM role earlier this year and didn’t waste any time embracing the full breadth of the role. Her first mission- team unity. She created a survey asking team members things like favorite snacks, colors, and pastimes. She collected this information and compiled it into a binder, a resource for how to best show appreciation to one another. What it became was a way to bring us together as a team while simultaneously making us feel seen as individuals. With each turning page, you’ll meet a different member of our dynamic team. Fit within perfectly placed infographics, you can find the often overlooked, tiny details that make us special; in appreciating our uniqueness, you end up witnessing our ‘togetherness’. 

Those outside of nursing will likely never understand how deeply bonded nurses are within their ‘work family.’ In countless visceral experiences, I’ve had my nurse team to fall back on. One such night, it wasn’t a patient experiencing a crisis; it was me. As I sat charting at 3:41 am, my phone alerted me that I had received test results from a recent MRI. I wasn’t supposed to see them yet; it was a mistake, an immeasurable oversight for me to read about the tumor found in my breast before my doctor was able to discuss the results with me. I sat roughly five feet from my charge nurse, Delaney, and she looked at me and knew something was wrong. One blink later, I’m engulfed in a hug while tears stream into my mask; a hug that I knew was a safe place. You see, Delaney isn’t just my manager; she’s my friend, my mentor, and someone I adore endlessly. She’s the hugger, the first person to stand up, and speak up. The one who knows all of our favorite colors because she made that beautiful binder all about us. 

Between those pages, you’ll find tons of people who all have at least one thing in common: Delaney represents the best of us.