Diana-Lynn provides patient-centered care whenever possible. There was a patient who was in the SICU for several months. His girlfriend was his primary source of support and was on the unit daily. When Valentine's Day came around, the patient remained in the hospital and his medical condition prevented him from leaving his room. Knowing this, and still wanting to make the holiday special for both the patient and his loved one, Diana-Lynn brought in a card and flowers from the patient to his girlfriend. The patient’s girlfriend was so touched by the gesture. This act of kindness by the unit leadership role modeled excellence in patient-centered care and was inspirational to unit staff members. On a daily basis, Diana-Lynn advocates for patients and families to participate in interdisciplinary rounds to provide real time updates to family members to ensure that they are a part of the team.

Special Connection:

Diana-Lynn is exceptional at recognizing others. When hospital-wide award nominations are open, Diana-Lynn always uses the opportunity to give staff the appreciation they deserve. The Surgical ICU has had a Nightingale Award winner every year for the past four years due to Diana-Lynn’s commitment to composing and submitting nominations. Prior to the restrictions created by the COVID 19 pandemic, Diana-Lynn would frequently host ice cream parties to show her staff that their hard work is noticed and valued. She commonly gives tokens of gratitude including gifts for Nurse’s week, stickers for Certified Nurses’ Day, and holiday gifts. Diana-Lynn even took the time to create a “Wellness Week” for nurses, when she arranged for chair massages, pet therapy, reiki therapy, and mindful meditation sessions. She even covered the nurse’s patient assignments personally while they attended these sessions. In addition to going above and beyond in appreciating others, Diana-Lynn shows respect by being curious and listening without interruption. Her office is known to be a safe space where anyone can share thoughts or feelings without hesitation.

As a patient service manager, Diana-Lynn recognizes the emotional burden of nursing, particularly for critical care nurses. She seeks out opportunities to support her staff when dealing with particularly difficult situations. One example is when she pulled together multiple teams to debrief about a long-term patient. She made sure all staff were able to voice concerns and hear rationales for decisions being made. At the end of the time together, there was a better mutual understanding of everyone’s perspectives in a very complicated case. Additionally, she will frequently reach out to the Crisis Response Team when emotionally or ethically 9difficult cases arise to ensure the staff are supported, especially after a death. She also physically supports the staff by covering assignments, to ensure they can attend, uninterrupted.

Significant Difference:

Diana-Lynn values her staff’s ideas and opinions. She never decides independently, she always seeks the opinions of staff members, particularly in decisions that affect their work. Diana-Lynn will put an issue to a vote to seek thoughts from staff. The Surgical ICU has a reputation at Yale New Haven Hospital for being exceptional around teamwork. This is only possible due to Diana-Lynn strong leadership and role modeling behavior. A professional goal of Diana-Lynn has been obtaining a Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. She set out a vision for 2021 to gather staff to write the document. With Diana-Lynn’s enthusiasm and motivation to obtain this award, the SICU at YSC was awarding the Silver Level award in 2022.

Diana-Lynn seeks out ways to make the unit’s outcomes better for each patient. She constantly collaborates with the service line leadership support roles to enhance workflows, improving quality of care and patient/employee safety. She seeks out thoughts on how to make the unit a better place to work, which is reflected in assessments on the healthy work environment. She is committed to these acts by holding staff meetings where staff can voice thoughts and opinions, as well as attending quality & safety meetings on the unit.

Diana-Lynn holds herself accountable in every aspect of her job. She goes above and beyond to ensure our staffing needs are met, even considering the COVID-19 crisis. She takes calls regarding staffing at any time of the day or night, including on weekends and holidays. She knows that having adequate time deliver patient-centered care is of the utmost importance. Diana-Lynn doesn't just take care of patients; she takes care of an entire unit of patients as well as the staff. In 2017, the employee engagement survey revealed that there was an opportunity for improvement around patient and staff safety and security. Diana-Lynn immediately made it a priority to make her staff feel safe. In collaboration with other members of the leadership team, Diana-Lynn enhanced the physical safety of the environment. Best practices found in the literature implemented were the installation of panic buttons on all SICU computers. Cameras were also installed throughout the units and visitor waiting areas, allowing staff to visualize the entire unit. Additionally, de-escalation training was provided for all staff to decrease workplace violence and if they needed to de-escalate a situation with a visitor and/or patient to maintain safety for all. This is just one example of how Diana-Lynn went above and beyond to meet the needs of her staff.