Kristen is an excellent Assistant Nurse Manager who somehow seamlessly combines leadership, teamwork, and friendship. She supports the staff on Kahn1 in a multitude of ways: she spends most of her day not sitting behind her desk, but helping out on the unit. She's always quick to help with a boost, get someone back to bed, hand out a medication, answer a call bell, or put her awesome IV skills to good use when we get a hard stick! You're sure to find her speaking with patients and their families. Her friendliness and compassion are readily apparent. Kristen is also a go-to in emergencies; if you ask any of our staff, they will all say without hesitation that she is someone you want in a code. Her quick thinking and excellent nursing and critical thinking skills have saved more than one life, and I've been thankful on many occasions to have her at my side.
Kristen also works hard to create a supportive and cohesive unit. She's organized teams for AHS kickball, whiffleball, and volleyball, including making up catchy names and fun team t-shirts. She works hard to make everyone feel recognized, always remembering birthdays, new babies, retirements, and moving-on days. She started a "Wheel of Fortune" game to end our monthly unit meetings; she's designed many bulletin boards on Kahn 1, some highlighting our surgical floor and medication safety, and some just for fun...like our staff's pet brag board!
She also puts so much time and effort into her leadership responsibilities, as well. She works and reworks the monthly RN schedule until it's almost perfect. She does her best to give everyone the days they want, both working and being off. She spends endless hours on our staff's yearly performance reviews, truly personalizing them and giving us positive reinforcement and constructive ideas for improvement. I think one of the reasons that Kristen is so great at her job is that she sees it as much more than just a "job." She loves our patients, and she loves our team, and she goes above and beyond every day to make our lives better.
Recently, one of our nursing assistants was having trouble finding where on the Hub to sign her performance review, and I was helping her. There was a section for "comments," and I asked her if she wanted to leave a comment. She replied, "Can you write 'Kristen is a wonderful person?" That sums it up perfectly! Thank you for all you do, Kristen!!