Lori has been with the organization for 38 years and goes above and beyond everyday for not only the patients but for the team members. She is always willing to step in anytime there is assistance needed and is great at educating when she sees an opportunity for improvement. There is no single story that describes how dedicated Lori is to the organization, the unit, the patients, and the team members.
She is ALWAYS taking time to help each and every one of us when we need it, she always has our back and is a true representation of management who cares and has our back. She has worked as an RN for many many many years and her knowledge makes her one of the greatest nurses I know.
***
I have been working as a floor and charge nurse for almost 25 years and working with Lori for about 18 of those years. I have never nominated anyone for this award, but I feel Lori has more than exceeded my expectations of what a fellow nurse and assistant nurse manager should exemplify. She works hard every day that she is here. I have never worked with a nurse who advocates for other nurses and nursing techs like she has done for so many years.
***
Lori is an important part of our management team. I've known her for years. We both are senior nurses of over 30 years. We both strive to keep a level of professionalism on our unit. Lori switched from floor nurse to leader a few years ago and has been a huge contributing factor to maintain high morale on our unit. She is always available to mentor new nurses. Steps out to assist when the unit gets busy. Always a good resource for policy.
***
Lori is part of a great leadership team. Who constantly shows appreciation for the staff on 5B. She makes sure that meetings and staff celebrations are fun and meaningful. I respect her as a nurse. I love her as a long-time friend. I'm proud to be part of a winning team on 5B under her guidance.
***
It is with great pleasure to nominate Nurse Lori for The DAISY Lifetime Achievement award. Lori has worked here and dedicated herself for 37 years. When I became the new educator of the department in 2009 Lori was so helpful and supportive with my transition to the new role. To this day she has been a mentor and role model for me. She is so professional and easy to work with and we collaborate with the rest of the leadership team to make sure that 5B CIU is the best place to work. Lori is honest, professional, and has so much integrity. She is trusted and dedicated to the staff as well as the physicians and patients. Daily you will find Lori out and around the unit helping with direct patient care and cleaning of the unit. Even on her office shifts, Lori jumps up without question to help with anything needed. When in charge we can always count on her to be a clinical resource with her unmatched knowledge and clinical skills. On countless occasions, Lori has spent her own money to help celebrate staff during holidays, meetings, and summits. She will cook and bring in food to the unit for staff to enjoy. Just yesterday and last week Lori made biscuits and brownies for our unit summits and brought holiday gifts for the staff as she does on each occasion. I have seen Lori brought to tears countless times when talking about our unit celebrations such as making the top 10% the past two years. She gets emotional because her heart is with the staff and the patients. Such a personal investment that shows ownership and dedication. Lori is very involved in the unit initiatives and patient safety is what she speaks about weekly when she leads GEMBA. She is a patient advocate. In summary, I am honored to recommend Lori Bigelow for The DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award. It has been my pleasure to work with such a wonderful and caring nurse that represents what nursing should be.
***
It is impossible to summarize in a few words what kind of nurse Lori Bigelow, our Clinical Assistant Nurse manager is to the 5B CIU unit. Lori has devoted near 40 years of her life to caring for a unique and complex group of patients. She is a born leader and has made countless contributions to make 5B a cohesive nursing team as it is today. Lori is instrumental in the facilitation of family and patient-centered care and embraces challenges and changes with innovative strategies. Lori most notable quality is her leadership skills and caring demeanor.
In the leadership role of Clinical Assistant Nurse Manager, Lori continuously shows staff what it means to feel supported. Whether it be helping nurses with lab draws, putting new IV on hard stick patients, talking new GN through their first day on the unit, or managing high patient flow and bed shortages, Lori is the person that all of our nurses want to have at their side when times become challenging.
More recently Lori has taken her cardiac nursing skills to another level as she has passed her PCCN certification. Lori works tirelessly to enable her staff to succeed. Lori does whatever it takes to best support the nurses she manages. One example of this is the support she gave to me when I was trained for the charge nurse role and experienced a challenging situation with a "very important" patient and family members. I was very impressed with the patience and support Lori has offered me. Not only did Lori go above and beyond what was expected to help me with making accommodations for this patient and his families, but she checked in from home on her days off to see how I was doing afterward, and to ask what she could do to help ease my stress level.
When one of her colleagues had to take time off for maternity leave, Lori stepped in and made sure that the unit was running efficiently. Lori also spends countless hours to make sure that the nurses' self-scheduling tasks are fairly distributed, and the nursing schedules were posted timely. With the holidays and increasing end of year time-off requests, making sure that the shifts are efficiently covered, and all nurses and unlicensed personnel received their schedules on time was not a small feat.
Lori understands the value of patient-centered practice and makes it a priority. For example, when 5B initiated the multidisciplinary rounds. Lori arranges her time and prioritizes this task to make sure that the communication between the charge nurse, care coordinators, physicians, and clinical nurses was seamless. She assisted in the logistics of making this practice change, and regularly facilitates interdisciplinary rounds on 5B.
Lori also has unwavering support for shared governance. She advocates for the voices of nurses for safe practices and nurses' participation in the unit nursing practice council. It is not overly stated if I said that Lori is the backbone of the 5B nursing staff. Her leadership, knowledge, patients, families, and the unit as a whole.
I am honored to have gotten the opportunity to learn from Lori and look to her as a role model for what /I want to be in the future. I cannot think of another person who is more deserving of A DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award, because simply put Lori is an Extraordinary Nurse with more years dedicated to the nursing profession in general and to Orlando Health specifically than some of the nurses have been alive.