Sheila is a Heart Failure Nurse Navigator with Maryview. She is well known to our nurses and our physicians for being a leader in providing excellent care to our heart failure patients by changing nursing practice at Maryview to reflect new standards. She has contributed to countless changes that have led Maryview to see rapidly decreasing heart failure readmissions over the past several years.

She has gone above and beyond for her heart failure patients multiple times over the past several years. To describe these events would be to simply follow her for a few hours to truly see the passion and love she has for her patients. She will come in the evenings, at night, or on weekends to meet the needs of her patient. She calls these patients for weeks after discharge and helps them navigate both inpatient and outpatient care areas to manage their chronic heart failure. Many of our patients cannot afford simple items to help them manage the daily needs of their condition. Sheila (with her counterpart) were able to secure several scales and blood pressure cuffs so that her patients could weigh themselves daily at home and take their own blood pressure as part of their daily care regimen.

An example of her passion occurred last week; there was a heart failure patient who needed a medication. This patient is part of our indigent medication program, however, since this particular medication is available over the counter, it did not qualify for the program. The patient still needed this medication and could not afford it. Sheila purchased this medication (out of her own pocket) and provided it to the patient. She lives the mission of Bon Secours to serve "the poor and dying."

Sheila will never understand what her presence means to the new nurse, the concerned family, or frightened patient. Heart failure affects the very organ that Sheila practices with every day- the heart. I know the staff and patients here fall in love with her every day, and yet, I do not think she knows her own impact. She moves from one patient to another to begin again the cycle of caregiving, nurturing, and loving. I hope this award would provide her some measure of realization that she is an absolutely amazing nurse, a compassionate caregiver, and one of the best human beings I have ever known.