On behalf of the entire unit, I would like to nominate Laura Corbett for the DAISY Nurse Leader Award. Laura has led our unit, NIC 2, into a new space (Stead Family Children's Hospital) and spearheaded the transport of our tiniest patients to the new facility. Previously to doing this, she functioned as our assistant nurse manager and for a brief time managed both the NIC 1 and NIC 2 units, making her a leader of over 200+ staff, managing 80-90 of Iowa's tiniest and sickest patients. Her hard work and dedication to her employees, the patients, and their families do not go unnoticed and very much deserves to be recognized.
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Laura is constantly doing things to boost our staff morale. We celebrated the Royal Wedding, and each brought a baby picture in for others to guess who was who. Pot lucks, field trips, facilitating ordering a personal copy of a book for nurses that was authored by a speaker that will be attending and speaking at the upcoming Neonatal Conference, and so many, many more things.
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Laura makes things competitive and fun, like asking questions and throwing candy for correctly answered unit policy questions.
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As a bedside nurse, I always know that Laura not only has the best interest of the patients/families at heart, but also her staff.
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Laura's door is always open.
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Laura is able to maintain her leadership role but is also able to administer to the needs of each staff member individually and guide them too if needed. i.e., Employee Assistance Program.
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Laura can redirect us in a way that is appropriate and get her message across without feeling as though it is punitive.
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As a charge nurse, it is comforting to know that Laura supports the decisions made functioning within this role, even though she may have made a different decision in that same moment.
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Laura gives us the autonomy to function within our roles and encourages us to grow professionally.
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Laura is very approachable and willing to stay late/come in early to meet the needs of the nurses.
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Laura gives generously of her time even though it may mean staying late to address an issue.
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Laura goes above and beyond to bring happiness to our staff. This is not inclusive to one group of individuals like nurses, but also NAs, clerks, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nurse practitioners, and housekeeping staff.
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Laura worked hard on SFCH one-year anniversary to get student athletes to the bedside for our families. She surprised one of her staff nurses by getting that nurse's son that plays football to be one of those athletes.
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Laura is quick to resolve issues, gives feedback and is honest.
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Laura recognizes that we have special occasions in our lives. She encourages us to celebrate them with our families and works hard to get off on those occasions but never sacrificing the needs of the unit.
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Laura has brought outside resources into the hospital to better train and educate staff. She has had speakers come into our unit and discuss various topics. Soon, there will be a speaker addressing a series of talks over sugar.
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Laura maintains a positive attitude and does not let her personal and professional worries show overtly.
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Laura works hard to understand a situation/or struggles with difficult families and gets appropriate resources involved as needed (security or legal).