tonya pipolo, MBA, MSN, RN, CNL, CRRN

Tonya is someone that when you walk onto the unit in the morning you see, and you exhale with a sense of relief... Today is going to be a good day. She is one of the most intelligent, helpful, and honest nurses I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and she is always going above and beyond for patient safety and to help her coworkers. I feel like I am thanking her every day for one thing or another, but this particular story stands out more than most.
It's a Friday morning, I wake up, check my work email, and Concerro to find out we are short a nurse. Dang, it's going to be a busy day; but hey that's okay it will make the day go by fast. I'm driving what usually is my 45 min commute and suddenly I hit a parking lot of traffic... crap, now we are short a nurse and I'm going to be late... like super late. I looked and see that Tonya picked up CNL time that day, so I texted her. She responded "ok, be safe. See you soon. I'm dressed to help until noon". After stressing out, chugging my whole coffee, and finally getting to work at 9 am after a 3-and-a-half-hour commute, I arrive to find Tonya, dressed in some old teal scrubs she found in the locker room - finished my last med pass and helping clean up my patients. She had a smile on her face and said, "Don't worry, go to huddle I got this!" What could have been the start to my terrible stressful workday ended up being the least stressful part of my morning. It wasn't until later that I realized she was late to take her father-in-law to his surgery appointment because she was at SRAlab... being my everyday hero. I cannot thank her enough. What an amazing person she is!