A great nurse leader empowers their nursing staff to perform at their utmost level in improving patient care and satisfaction. Sue Gross is a nurse leader who emanates this empowerment to her staff. This leadership is evidenced by the achievements of her unit and staff. 7K achieved the most improved HCAHPS scores for March 2019 and August 2019. This was a result of Sue always being available to listen to staff concerns and ideas that impact patient care. The HCAHPS improvement also could not have been achieved without Sue ensuring that her nurses and techs were following best practices and policies. Sue guarantees that the staff is performing hourly patient rounds and bedside shift reports.
The unit also has won the Outstanding Unit Quality Outcome Award in 2018. This was achieved by Sue working with her nurses to use critical thinking skills and assess if earlier removal of urinary catheters is indicated to decrease UTIs.
Sue also is vigilant about fall and pressure ulcer preventions and works closely with unit champions to ensure that the unit staff is at the forefront of prevention of falls and pressure ulcers. She supports the unit to envision the whole aspect of patient care and factors that impact that care.
Sue fosters interdisciplinary interaction and communication as realizing that all disciplines are needed to meet patients' goals. She engaged nursing staff to actively partner with physical therapy and case management to focus on decreasing length of stay for total hip and total knee replacements. Sue and staff nurses from 7K collected data and authored an article on interprofessional collaboration and patient engagement which was published in December 2018 issue of Pennsylvania Nurse.
Sue also takes a personal interest in the professional aspirations of her staff. There are former staff nurses from the unit that Sue has mentored to becoming PCCs on other floors, as well as achieving other goals such as working in critical care, the ED and the OR. Nurse leaders leave an impact with their legacy. 7K is grateful to have a leader who is dedicated, committed and uses her time, talent and treasures to empower her nursing staff to excel and continue to find ways to provide excellent nursing care.