Julie role models extraordinary behavior with every decision she makes. She leads by example, and her example is to show exceptional work ethic and commitment to her staff, unit, and employers, thereby bringing respect and high standards to the field of nursing. She structures her job in a way that has the overarching success of the SIC as her goal, while keeping the best interests of her staff at the heart of her decisions. No matter the challenges she faces, whether personal or professional, she is willing to take on additional responsibilities without complaint. For example, when the manager of 4N left, Julie took on the additional role of 4N manager. Being the manager for one ICU is a daunting task in and of itself. However, Julie brought the same energy, innovation, and problem-solving excellence to her extended role without ever compromising her investment in the success of 4S. She exhibited this extraordinary behavior because she values the nurses at our institution and is committed to ensuring the best outcomes for our patients.

As such, Julie is highly invested in the healing of our patients and doing so with compassion, excellence, mutual respect, and ethical behavior. She is committed to evaluating the metrics set forth by our hospital and finding innovative and sustainable ways to ensure those metrics are met to ensure the healing of our patients and the reduction of poor outcomes. When the numbers are where they ought to be, Julie is the first to bring success to the nurses on the unit and celebrate the team's work.

When the numbers are subpar, Julie becomes a strong advocate for our patient's well-being. She evaluates and researches the metrics and specific instances of concern, reaches out to any team members involved, identifies opportunities for change, collaborates with staff to find solutions that are sustainable, and tirelessly follows through until success is achieved. She is focused on excellence and is not satisfied with any metric that is subpar that brings harm to the patient. For example, she worked tirelessly to identify why we had an increase in CLABSIs and became a voice for change in how nurses managed lines. She tirelessly conducted quality rounds, assessed patients' lines, involved the VAT team, researched any reason why we would have an increase in line infections, and supported the change of caps on our lines to help reduce the number of CLABSIs. Julie's commitment to our patients is palpable and done with great compassion. She is truly invested in seeing the best outcomes for our patients and ensuring that their healing process has as few complications as possible.

Julie's leadership style is one that centers on building a team that together is committed to excellence. As such, each decision that she makes that has an impact on our floor is brought to the team for their feedback. This kind of leadership is powerful. Managing well over a hundred nurses in the SIC alone and ensuring that decisions are team-driven takes time and immense patience She is the consummate team player but balances that need with being the leader of our team. In unit council meetings, she listens to the needs of the staff, and no request is inconsequential to her. She is not a passive participant in these meetings and generates a list of the items she will tackle before the next meeting. Julie makes teamwork the foundation of her leadership style. She is equally invested in all aspects of the patient's experience and her staff's satisfaction. When she says that she will do something, whether it be providing more resources for the floor, attending a meeting, helping to develop a plan of action (bedside handoff compliance, intentional rounding opportunities, solving bed issues), or writing recommendations for staff she always fulfills her promises. She does not ask her staff to do anything that she herself is not willing to do. She has been known to go into a room and help a nurse with patient care and transfer them from the chair to the bed without being asked. During a particularly difficult shift, she jumped right in and helped take care of a patient on our floor. She is the consummate team player and treats all those around her as equals with valuable opinions and insight. She is available to talk about career goals and help thresh out the best career path for her nurses. She is willing to write letters of recommendations, nominate people for Clinic opportunities, suggest educational opportunities, and support her nurses as they inevitably move both horizontally and vertically through our organization.

Julie was faced with a very daunting task over the last two years. She had to lead a large group of nurses through a pandemic, keep morale up, and in the most difficult of times when simply surviving was a monumental enough task, continue to provide and even surpass the astronomically high standards of patient care our organization demands. She was able to do this because at the heart of every decision she made, she put the care and safety of our patients first, and did so by respecting, supporting, and advocating for the staff she leads. Julie is exceptional and a role model in every sense of the word. She is the gold standard for what nursing should be and it is a privilege to work with her and learn from her.