Katie has been an RN on CVCU for 6 years and she is an integral part of the CVCU team. I believe Katie is an incredible example of all the qualities found in a DAISY Nurse. Katie’s Clinical Skills speak for themselves. The scenario described in exemplary service is not unique because Katie is consistently offering her expertise to give all the patients she comes across their best chance at recovery. Because of her exceptional critical thinking, on any shift she is scheduled for, Katie can be found caring for the sickest patients on the floor. Nurses working with her are comfortable and confident in her skills and knowledge and she is constantly answering questions, teaching, and jumping in to lend a hand. In emergencies, Katie can effectively lead an entire room of nurses, but she doesn’t seek the spotlight if she’s not needed. She is not only proficient but has mastered every specialized piece of equipment CVCU uses. She maintains multiple certifications both nationally recognized and hospital-specific including her CCRN, NIHHS, Trach Care Super User, and RN Swallow Screener. Katie embodies what I can only describe as every hospital's dream nurse.

Delivering Compassionate Care is definitely one of Katie’s most notable qualities as evidenced by the fact that her patients and their families love her. However, I would like to focus on the compassionate care she offers freely to her colleagues. Katie is part of the hospital-wide Peer Support team where she can be on call for any and all hospital staff to reach out for support for any reason. On a more “local” level, Katie created a group on CVCU that consists of 8 members of our staff whose whole purpose is to improve employee satisfaction, fight burnout, increase resilience, and support staff on a peer-to-peer level. This group dubbed itself the “Care Bears” and Katie is the backbone of the team. She spearheaded a project that ultimately allowed the group to repurpose a space on the unit to be a staff respite room using an evidenced-based biophilic design. This required her to spend numerous unpaid hours researching design, analyzing results of surveys, communicating with management, and ultimately setting up the room itself. On a follow-up survey, 82% of staff said they love the new respite room. Katie is passionate about taking care of people and that care extends far beyond her patients and we, her colleagues, are happier because of it.

Katie displays Exemplary Service on a regular basis, but a specific example occurred on a very recent night shift that stands out above the rest. An open-heart patient returned from OR shortly before the start of the shift and he was incredibly unstable. Katie was in charge of that shift, and the patient had 2 nurses assigned to him. He was bleeding heavily from his drains and profoundly hypotensive requiring extremely high doses of 4 pressors. The team was attempting to volume resuscitate him with blood products but were not able to keep up with his increasing output. Through the night, the primary RNs were in frequent contact with the surgery team PA who was on call but were continually met with resistance when they were asking for more aggressive treatment (most specifically, returning to the OR to control the source of the bleeding). After multiple calls with no movement, the patient's condition continued to deteriorate. Katie stepped in as the shift leader and called the surgery team herself and a crucial conversation was had. At the end of the call, the PA agreed to discuss with the surgeon the possible need to return to the operating room and within minutes, a return call was received to prep the patient for an immediate return to the operating room. Without Katie’s leadership, teamwork, and confidence in herself and her knowledge, it’s unknown what may have happened.

What we do know, is the patient received the care he needed and returned from OR remarkably more stable. A few days later, he was walking in the halls with his family. Katie is a role model for all staff when it comes to trusting your gut and having hard conversations to advocate for your patients.

Commitment to excellence is a value that is exemplified by Katie regularly. Her leadership skills in both the clinical and interpersonal settings have been carefully cultivated during her career here at Salem Health. She holds herself to a very high standard and promotes accountability in her colleagues by demonstrating accountability with them. She has worked her way through the different tiers of training available on our mixed unit starting in the new grad residency, through basic ICU level competencies, specialty training for immediate post-operative open-heart patients, specialty equipment competencies including Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump, Alsius cooling device for therapeutic hypothermia, Impella Pump and Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy. In addition to these specialized pieces of equipment, Katie has undergone additional training to be a Charge nurse and a Resource nurse on the unit. These roles are only offered to nurses who have exemplified a commitment to excellence in bedside care, effective teamwork, and the ability to excel under pressure and maintain positive relationships with all other members of the team including RNs, CNAs, management, techs, Doctors, and PAs. Not only does she maintain relationships, but she also cultivates a strong sense of trust with her peers and providers alike. In case it isn’t abundantly clear, Katie Stofleth is incredible. She is a recognized unit expert, a trusted and respected leader, and an exceptionally compassionate human. I am honored to nominate her for this award, and I count myself lucky to know her.