I would like to nominate Lea Moser, RN my Nurse Manager for the Daisy Award. Lea came to Palmetto Health Richland right out of nursing school as a new graduate on the Medical Oncology unit, and has been a constant on our unit for the past 13 years. She started out as a new graduate staff nurse, grew to charge nurse, preceptor, Assistant Nurse Manager, and now has been my Nurse Manager for the last year. Over the years, I have seen her grow as person, as a mom and wife, a nurse, and now a nurse manager. As a floor nurse and charge nurse, her teamwork was second to none. She is a pivotal team player; in fact liken her to the quarterback or the point guard in game. She sees the whole floor at one time and works to make everything flow smoothly, jumping in to assist, delegating, or solving a challenging opportunity, or just simply listening. She is never boastful, willing to get in there and help, even when she has many other things on her plate. She has helped the nurse techs give baths, the secretaries input orders, and the nurses deliver care. In fact she has even substituted in those roles many times to ensure we all had a good shift. On one day, I was not feeling very good and was struggling through my day; Lea had my chemotherapy up and infusing before I even knew it. She noticed that I was behind with my work and she jumped right in to help me get caught up. I describe her as the “energizer bunny.”

She has grown professionally too. She had the goal of obtaining her BSN degree. She set out to achieve this goal, and did so never faltering in her commitment to the unit, the staff, and her family. She also has worked to get our nursing unit involved in our local Riverbanks Oncology Society, even serving in officer roles coordinating our meetings. She is Oncology Certified, and encourages each and every one us to do the same to raise the professionalism on our unit and within ourselves.

She is the role model for our staff and works to support our team endlessly, on the floor delivering care to the patients, but also growing our staff in knowledge and teamwork.
She is the first one to acknowledge someone for a special event in their life. Whether shower, wedding, loss of family member; she is there. She stays connected with the unit to be in the know of our unit status, but also people status. She has hosted our unit Christmas party at her house year after year, opening her home and her personal life to us. We know her husband and her kids. She works to make us like family. She also does this for her patients. She will sit at the bedside and explain a chemotherapy regimen, a disease process, a treatment option, and even death. She is there to hold the patients hand, or just listen, and instills in us to do the same. She is a role model in her patient care and knowledge, a walking oncology treatment encyclopedia. She has jumped in to coordinate, plan, and even write the material for our Oncology Care Courses, and Chemotherapy courses. In fact has taught at the courses consistently, overcoming her fear of the dreaded public speaking. We respect her knowledge and confidence with the oncology treatment options, and staff or MDs never question her clinical judgment. In fact, she was the CPOE expert. When CPOE went live, she was out at the doctors’ offices working with them on order entry, coming in early and staying late to make sure we knew what we were doing. MDs still call her with computer questions of how to.
Without fail, she has the answer each and every time. When staff come to me to ask me about chemo protocols, I say “ask Lea”, and like a book she rattles off the information. She is like EF Hutton, when she talks, people listen.