The past year, we incorporated nursing into our Treatment Resistant Depression program. When asked for volunteers, Ms. Debar who is a Sigma LPN volunteered to assist our TMS program during the hiring phase to ensure that our veterans continue to receive this life saving treatment. From the start, she completed all of the required TMS and hands on trainings. The TMS training is approximately 8-10 hours, and the hands-on training was an additional 8 hours. In addition, she volunteers to be the test person for the section chief when she is training the new providers and residents. Ms. Debar goes above and beyond to ensure that the TRD staff have the necessary supplies, paperwork and assistance needed to provide services. Because she is vested in caring for the veterans and volunteers to assist, the program has been able to expand rapidly. Although she is not assigned to TRD, she continues to cover on an almost daily basis in the transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) department while continuing to cover her position as the Sigma injection nurse. She told me that she does this because of her love for her fellow veterans and that being part of the TMS department is personally exciting as she personally sees veterans getting better with this life-saving treatment. Ms. Debar is an enthusiastic, kind, and dedicated nurse who goes above and beyond to provide quality services to the veteran population that we serve. Being a veteran, she is able to connect with the veterans on a professional and fellow veteran level while maintaining her professional boundaries. She has a thorough understanding of the needs of this population who has been dealing with medication failures and SI, and this is often considered a last resort due to medications failing to manage the depression symptoms. She provides a ray of hope with her pleasant and supportive demeanor. She is very good at explaining the procedure, addressing their needs, and being a proactive advocate in the treatment team. She works well with all of the providers and other nursing personnel. The entire team would like to keep her on this team, but we currently do not have a LPN position. Independently, she came up with presenting each veteran who completes treatment with a graduation certificate and the ringing of the bell. She uses humor to get the veteran to relax. On numerous occasions, I have personally spoken with veterans who identified her as the reason that they continued treatment. The remarks were “She really cares,” “she understands,” “She is so kind,” “She’s so funny and makes me laugh,” and “I would have given up if it wasn’t for her encouragement and support.”

As a manager, I am very pleased that the Veterans recognize her efforts, as well as the Section Chief Psychiatrist, Attending Psychiatrists, Nurse Practitioners, and RNs who comment on the extraordinary care and dedication that Ms. Debar has demonstrated to our Veterans, the VAPHS, and the TRD department. Ms. Debar personalizes the patient experience through the graduation certificates and ringing of the bell when they graduate. She posts positive affirmations where the Veterans can visualize them, and she started a pet wall in the TMS clinic where she invites the Veterans to bring in pictures of their pets. She gives each pet a regal name. Ms. Debar was working in Sigma and TRD on this day, she was doing her usual rounding right before she was leaving and saw a gentleman sitting by himself off to the side in clinic 1. She went over to check in with the MSA’s to make sure that they knew he was sitting over there. She discovered that there was no MSAs present in the clinic to check him in to be seen. She informed the Veteran that the MSAs were gone for the day and asked how she could assist him. He began crying and stated, “I’ve been sitting here for a while and no one is here, what am I supposed to do”. She sat with him and talked with him to see how she could help him. He told her that he had recently lost his spouse and he didn’t want to live any longer. Because it was after hours and he wasn’t able to contract for safety, she walked him over to the ED and he was seen in the ED. Ms. Debar is often seen walking Veterans to their appointment when lost or making calls for them to get their needs addressed in other departments in the hospital. I am recommending Ms. Debar for this award for going above and beyond to care for our nation’s veterans. Ms. Debar exemplifies the ICARE values as she is dedicated to the Veterans she serves, and I consider her an asset to the BHSL and to VA Pittsburgh.