Patrice Kelly
May 2021
Patrice
Kelly
,
MSN, RN, CNOR
Director of Perioperative Services
Mount Sinai South Nassau
Oceanside
,
NY
United States

 

 

 

Patrice demonstrates significant achievements that have advanced the practice of nursing, improved patient outcomes, enhanced the perioperative work environment, and promotes multi-disciplinary teamwork.
Patrice Kelly: Decisive leader, patient advocate, collaborator, role model, self-starter, and forward-thinking are just a few adjectives to describe our Honoree for the DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award. Those attributes and many more reflect an expert nurse with a career of close to 30 years. She began her career as a surgical tech and eventually returned to school first for an associate degree, then subsequently achieved her BSN and Masters in Education. She also attained certification as an RN First Assistant (RNFA) and Certified Nurse Operating Room (CNOR).

She began a distinguished career as a nurse in clinical practice and then advanced progressively into nursing leadership - manager and director roles promotes a positive image of professional nursing. Our honoree demonstrates and actively engages in the professional development of herself and others in the nursing profession. As reflected by her educational advancement, our honoree is truly a lifelong learner. She promotes staff development from orientation to continuing education to formal education and professional certification. She has a special passion for coaching surgical techs to follow in her footsteps in transitioning to a nursing career. Our honoree is a proponent of AORN’s Periop 101 training and was instrumental in bringing it to MSSN. She even took time out to serve as an instructor for one group of perioperative fellows. She fosters a dynamic environment that fosters a “Culture of Leadership”. She recognizes that only through strong nursing leadership can we face and overcome today’s challenges in healthcare and keep the flame burning for the future of our profession. As a staunch advocate of nurses and nursing our candidate demonstrates leadership that is based on knowledge, fairness, and recognition of the challenges of daily bedside patient care. Serves as a role model to her leadership team and supports her managers to further advance their careers. She is never too busy to help staff with problem-solving.

Our honoree serves dually as a patient advocate and staff advocate. She actively supports positive patient outcomes and a positive nursing practice environment within the department of surgery. She leads and co-leads numerous committees including the SSI committee, OR Steering, Operative & Invasive Committee. Through all her committee work, she is actively supporting nursing. Our honoree demonstrates significant achievements that have advanced the practice of nursing, improved patient outcomes, enhanced the perioperative work environment, and promotes multi-disciplinary teamwork. Initiatives she has spearheaded include implementation of Sunrise Surgical, an electronic medical record for Perioperative Services, for establishing the Colon Guidelines, hysterectomy guidelines, patient education, ERAS, safe surgery, revision of MSSN’s count policy, implementing radiofrequency sponges to avoid Retained Foreign Bodies, tracking of human tissue & allografts, Impress tray tracking, updating Reptrax, and reducing staff exposure to surgical smoke – just to name a few.

During the COVID surge, the perioperative practice environment was changed in an unprecedented way. Perioperative staff was redeployed to acute care settings. Our honoree took on the challenges as they came – helping to open perioperative areas as critical care units, supporting redeployed staff, and assisting with the implementation of new technologies such as Masimo and Early Sense. Our honoree actively volunteers for Flu PODS, vaccine PODS, community events, and fundraisers such as the AHA heart walk. She is always looking for a way to give back. Our honoree is recognized by senior leadership, peers, physicians, and staff as a strong and dedicated nursing leader who instills accountability and challenges others to be their best. She leads by example and with candor and confidence. No matter how busy or cluttered the day is, you can always count on her to give of herself and her time to help everyone through it together!