Kelly Baker is not your ordinary nurse manager. She is exceptional at what she does, and she always gives 110%, day in and day out. She is the first one to arrive in the morning, and the last to leave in the evening.
My favorite quality about Kelly Baker is that she is a strong, compassionate advocate to both her staff and the patients. With her staff, she touches base with us daily, asking if we have any questions, concerns, ideas for improvement, etc. If we ask her a question that she doesn't know the answer to, she doesn't dismiss our question, but instead finds the answer and gets back to us by the end of the day. And if we ever have a concern, she is not afraid to go up the chain of command to be our voice, which is so refreshing! She genuinely cares about each and every one of us, which makes us feel like valued team members of the Advocate team.
With our patients, it is always evident how much she cares about them and their well-being. For example, if a patient has transportation issues and is therefore unable to come for chemotherapy, Kelly makes phone calls and figures out a way to get them a ride so they can still be treated. Or if a patient's IV gets infiltrated, she calls them the next day to follow up and see how their arm is feeling (and then also calls the nurse that had the patient that day, to kindly inform them of the patient's status).
Kelly Baker consistently goes above and beyond and does it without being asked to. Instead, she does it out of the kindness of her heart. Kelly Baker truly embodies all of the wonderful qualities of an Advocate nurse, and the staff of the OPP Infusion Center are all lucky to have her as a leader, mentor, and friend.
From the beginning of her manager role, she has consistently shown an amazing amount of compassion, diligence, knowledge, determination, and above all, respect and love for her team, patients, and everyone around her. Kelly makes sure she is available to talk, no matter what the situation is. She truly pays attention to what you are saying, making you feel heard and your comments or concerns are validated.
When there is a question, she normally has the answer, and if she doesn't, she will find it out in a timely manner. She has worked very hard to straighten kinks in the infusion center, and things that are under her control, she has been able to fix or the kink has shown improvement. She always has a smile on her face and something positive to say, even with all the fear surrounding COVID. She keeps us updated as much as possible as soon as she hears something.
Recently, we have had patients test positive for COVID, and if we were working with that patient, in any way, she will either speak to us in person or call us to make us aware. She then gives us the steps we need to take next. I feel safe when coming to work because I know she will keep us in the loop and try her best to keep us safe-which is huge in this pandemic.
In the past two weeks, whenever we had a patient that needed to go to the ED or be transferred to a unit in the hospital, she has helped us with the transfer process and even wheeled some patients down herself. She helps patients get the resources they need or points them in the right direction. Kelly always motivates us to grow in our nursing career by sending us CEUs and encouraging us to continue to get certified. Kelly is truly a DAISY Nurse. Kelly is the "Momma Bear" of the Infusion Center, the head of our household!