Nancye Feistritzer
May 2020
Nancye
Feistritzer
,
DNP, RN, NEA-BC
Vice President Patient Care Services, Chief Nursing Officer
Emory University Hospital
Atlanta
,
GA
United States
During the COVID- 19 pandemic, Nancye engaged immediately to ensure the safe delivery of care for patients and employees. Nancye demonstrated a tireless, positive, authentically present approach that made a significant impact on the staff, patients, and the organization. Nancye's actions affected us and many nurses personally.
What did Nancye do? She put people first, not only nurses but also the entire staff and providers. She assessed daily healthcare workers' (HCW) physical and emotional health. This meant arriving before first shift and staying late in the evening, balancing operations duties, with an authentic presence on the units. Using her experience with Emory's Ebola patients, she addressed fears and ensured a safe environment for people to speak up. She demonstrated compassion as she checked-in with employees throughout the organization.
She provided an environment that encouraged creativity and innovation balanced by a bottom line of safety. She was unafraid to disrupt and to support disruption to improve operations. She created opportunities that supported changing on the fly ensuring learning reached all parts of the organization. She acted quickly- and then was also willing to acknowledge when something did not work. She challenged teams to think so that we could expand Covid-19 cohort capacity seemingly overnight. Her work to develop nurse leaders at all levels supported the swift transformation of the care environment.
She modeled teamwork and communication and reached outside usual nursing partnerships to help EUH/EWWH nurses address gaps in performance. At the beginning of the Covid-19 presence at EUH/EWWH, there were issues with supplies of PPE. She communicated tirelessly the efforts/plans to address these needs. She created weekly Zoom forums that included interprofessional partners and ensured these were posted for all staff to review at their convenience. The halt of elective surgery resulted in the cancelation of many shifts. Nancye led efforts to redeploy, support innovative care models, and to identify new streams of nurses for when we are, again, able to open to our full capacity. She worked to ensure clear, concise, unambiguous, transparent, and timely messages. Her actions were congruent with her words.
Nancye, through her presence and actions, advocated for resources for the clinical staff. She acknowledges in word and deed that nurses at all levels are leaders and can create innovative solutions to the significant problems that accompanied the care of patients with Covid-19. Nancye stands out as a source of strength, kindness, thoughtfulness, safety, quality, and reassurance not only during the COVID crisis but every day as she leads our organization.
What did Nancye do? She put people first, not only nurses but also the entire staff and providers. She assessed daily healthcare workers' (HCW) physical and emotional health. This meant arriving before first shift and staying late in the evening, balancing operations duties, with an authentic presence on the units. Using her experience with Emory's Ebola patients, she addressed fears and ensured a safe environment for people to speak up. She demonstrated compassion as she checked-in with employees throughout the organization.
She provided an environment that encouraged creativity and innovation balanced by a bottom line of safety. She was unafraid to disrupt and to support disruption to improve operations. She created opportunities that supported changing on the fly ensuring learning reached all parts of the organization. She acted quickly- and then was also willing to acknowledge when something did not work. She challenged teams to think so that we could expand Covid-19 cohort capacity seemingly overnight. Her work to develop nurse leaders at all levels supported the swift transformation of the care environment.
She modeled teamwork and communication and reached outside usual nursing partnerships to help EUH/EWWH nurses address gaps in performance. At the beginning of the Covid-19 presence at EUH/EWWH, there were issues with supplies of PPE. She communicated tirelessly the efforts/plans to address these needs. She created weekly Zoom forums that included interprofessional partners and ensured these were posted for all staff to review at their convenience. The halt of elective surgery resulted in the cancelation of many shifts. Nancye led efforts to redeploy, support innovative care models, and to identify new streams of nurses for when we are, again, able to open to our full capacity. She worked to ensure clear, concise, unambiguous, transparent, and timely messages. Her actions were congruent with her words.
Nancye, through her presence and actions, advocated for resources for the clinical staff. She acknowledges in word and deed that nurses at all levels are leaders and can create innovative solutions to the significant problems that accompanied the care of patients with Covid-19. Nancye stands out as a source of strength, kindness, thoughtfulness, safety, quality, and reassurance not only during the COVID crisis but every day as she leads our organization.