Literature will often describe leadership qualities as encompassing a vision, displaying honesty, embodying empathy, and possessing a clear communication style. A leader must also have the ability to be a strategic thinker, along with being adept at navigating the course of change and improvement to drive success.

This RN Leader exhibits all these qualities; however, these descriptors only scratch the surface of the kind of Nurse Leader that this person embodies every minute of every day.

When this RN started at Boswell a little over 2 years ago, she inherited a large struggling division which included CVICU, ICU, 4-North Surgical Stepdown, Swat, and shortly thereafter picked up the Monitor Room and Wound care. The world was only just emerging out from the pandemic and the Division was lacking guidance in how to recover and get back on track.

As a result, the units were without a focused approach in staff recruitment, infection prevention, consistency in bedside care, and accountability. At that point, 70% of the staff were registry RNs.

Further complicating matters, her leadership support team was incomplete and also a bit fractured in that everyone had a different focus and priority resulting in mixed messages to the staff.

So, when this powerhouse of a personality and idea machine landed on our doorstep as our new division leader, many of us knew that she would have several areas that would need her focus.

She was new to Banner, new to Boswell, new to every staff member, and she was already far behind on her first day. The things that needed to be addressed were vast and daunting.

Staff were apprehensive and concerned about having a new leader stepping into this role. However, what we saw was a leader with finesse, understanding, and caring support. It was also evident right away how brilliant she is. That term is not used lightly.

The units were messy, unorganized, challenging, and the staff had their guard up. However, it was easy to see that this RN can analyze quickly. She knows already what she would do in any given situation.

But what emerged as a leader was the way she led. She fosters, appreciates, and encourages a “collaborative” solution. If the team gets stuck, Rashelle is able to jog loose the ideas in all of us. She is organized, picks up new information very quickly, and has a mind like a steel trap.

She has been the conduit that connects all of us. Her support leadership team has been rebuilt, reinvigorated, and responsibilities realigned. She has shown steadfast guidance and mentorship in leading this team. The focus is always on what is best for our precious patients as well as our talented staff.

She has created a trickle-down effect of accountability in our staff and team to be lasered focused on better outcomes for all who end up needing our care.

To this end over the last 2 years, the Critical Care division has steadily tackled and affected many significant improvements in our quality metrics and new programs for our units.

Whether it is decreasing our Hospital Acquired Pressures Ulcers by 50%, initiating the Structural Heart TAVR program, adding ETCO2 monitoring for all 4-North surgical patients, launching ECMO phase 1, escalation process or increasing our core staff to over 90%, this Leader recognizes her team, bedside RNs, PCAs and monitor techs for their expert input, ideas and involvement in solutions.

Her guidance given when rolling out bedside shift report has been instrumental to aligning our team to focus on all the many parts to best patient practice. Rashelle Fields makes it abundantly clear that “our successes” as a division are a result of all of us. She is a one-of-a-kind leader and truly has led us to be the best of ourselves.