Since the day Margaret Thomas started as the Clinical Educator, she hit the ground running. She constantly role-models teamwork, hard work, and dedication. She truly embodies a level of respect for our team and the work they do. At any given moment, you can find her on the unit helping support our team members, filling in knowledge gaps, and identifying what she can do to make their day a little better. There are times when our leadership team calls on her support, whether it be a product issue, a process issue, or a safety concern, and she will re-prioritize her work to support us. Numerous times, we have called on Maggie to be our right-hand man, our second “brain,” when working through an issue. With such a large unit, vast array of committees, and broad spectrum of patients, Maggie has her toe dipped into each item.
Her expertise has contributed to so many successful process changes, updating standard work, and the overall success of many new initiatives. She is highly reliable and has truly helped support better outcomes for our patients. Some of the projects she has supported this year include her support in our unplanned extubation group, her amazing “passport” themed skills fair, which engaged dozens of our team members and provided competency for over 300 nurses, her work with EPIC recommendations and changes and standard work for our new moderate sedation protocol- only to name a few! Most recently, when she was concerned with a new equipment roll-out, she appropriately escalated her concerns and was able to pause the roll-out, preventing a safety risk for our patient population.
Even with all of this, Maggie always comes through with a smile and a positive attitude. We are so lucky to have Maggie on our team and hope she feels valuable for so much of the “behind-the-scenes” work that she does. She embodies the image of our nursing organization, our community, and our profession.