Teresa serves as the Nurse Manager for Staffing for All Seasons at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. We believe her leadership to be emblematic of our Care, Lead, Innovate framework and demonstrates a commitment to nursing excellence. In managing SFAS, Teresa is presented with multiple opportunities that consistently strengthen the SFAS team and Penn Medicine as a health system. With over ten years of leadership at HUP, she is recognized by other managers and administrators as a dependable and trustworthy peer and is often called upon to spearhead new projects and initiatives.
HUP caters to a high acuity patient population; this sentiment rings especially true during the annual flu season. Over the last year, Teresa has proven to be instrumental in the development of the Dulles Ground Surge Unit. Staffed solely by SFAS nurses, the Surge Unit was created to mitigate the influx of stagnant bed requests and optimize patient flow in our Emergency Department. Decompression of the ED yields to faster inpatient admissions and prevention of delays in care. However, opening the Surge Unit did not come without difficulties.
Initially, Admissions were managing our bed board and selecting patients that were suboptimal candidates for this space. After soliciting staff feedback, Teresa empowered her nursing team to strengthen the lines of communication between SFAS, Admissions, and the ED. Teresa partnered with the leadership of the Emergency Department and Admissions to develop patient criteria and streamline the admission process. Feedback from patients has been overwhelmingly positive in the short time it has been opened. Patients and families are impressed with the high quality of care that is delivered despite the unique environment.
Teresa also oversees the Special Treatment Unit (STU) at HUP. This specialized team of nurses and administrators handle patients with highly critical diagnoses, such as Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). After a four-year hiatus, the STU was recently activated at HUP in order to care for a patient who was suspected to have EVD. Teresa worked tirelessly to ensure that the proper steps and protocols were followed to open the STU. She ensured that all staff had the proper personal protective equipment and resources to safely care for the patient.
Teresa's ability to coordinate the resources to activate the STU within hours of the patient arriving at HUP was nothing short of impressive. She remained at the hospital for over 36 hours to ensure that the team caring for the patient had the necessary provisions to provide safe and effective care. Teresa's calm presence during this stressful situation permeated to all the staff that cared for this patient. Never one to shy away from the bedside, she provided extensive emotional support to the patient's family during a period of intense uncertainty. The compassion Teresa exuded to the patient, their family and the staff, during this critical time, was unwavering and remarkable.
When the STU is dormant, Teresa still maintains the roster of appropriately trained staff and conducts bi-annually education sessions. She facilitates personal protective equipment training for the STU team and frequently corresponds with other institutions who have biocontainment units. Teresa stays abreast of the latest updates on pandemic illnesses and supervises interdisciplinary drills to ensure all team members are up to date with biocontainment procedure.
This summer, Teresa spearheaded a simulation drill with CHOP and HUP, which required the transfer of a patient with EVD from CHOP's ER to HUP without contamination of providers and institutions. She served as the team lead for the entire procedure and successfully carried out the drill without any providers or surfaces contaminated.
Teresa also oversaw the development of the newly minted CPUP float pool. After recognizing a need for resource nurses in the outpatient practices, Teresa encouraged some of her seasoned dayshift staff to cross-train to the ambulatory setting. She made a point to solicit feedback from these nurses to assess, enhance, and shape the workflow of this specialized team. After successfully piloting this initiative, Teresa hired all new staff to support the CPUP float pool and was instrumental in expanding the skillset and footprint of our resource pool.
Teresa consistently collaborates with nursing units throughout the organization in order to enhance high-quality patient care. One unique example is the partnership SFAS has with the Center for Human Phenomic Science (CHPS). The goal was to train the small group of nurses in order to facilitate more complex research studies to advance innovation and research throughout the organization. Teresa successfully oversaw the cross-training and orientation to a group of SFAS nurses. By partnering with SFAS, the CHPS unit saw an 86% increase in patient days due to the presence of our staff.
Additionally, Teresa has provided SFAS with endless guidance and support as we are currently working on our first Beacon Award application. She is present at every Beacon Team meeting and encourages her nurses to lead this project. In order to apply for the Beacon Award, a "unit" must have nursing-sensitive data linkable to patient outcomes. Since our team lacks a physical unit, identifying nursing quality indicators was our first hurdle. Teresa brainstormed with our team and arranged a meeting with the Infectious Disease department to facilitate the collection of hand hygiene data. SFAS is now proud to say we have hand hygiene data!
Teresa motivates her staff to outperform as a group while also pushing us to achieve our individual goals. She is highly supportive of evidence-based practice projects and encourages her staff to participate in interdisciplinary committees to elevate nursing presence and practice. Teresa always makes herself available to provide feedback and guidance to nurses on a daily basis. Her office door is always open, literally and figuratively, and is highly visible to both day and night shift staff. Due to her increased visibility, she instills and fosters an unwavering sense of trust with her employees. Her employees are apt to push themselves outside of the proverbial comfort zone because they know Teresa will be there to support them. Needless to say, Teresa is well received by her staff as she treats her employees with the utmost dignity and respect.
Overseeing SFAS comes with its own set of obstacles; it takes a very intuitive individual to manage this unique, virtual unit. While we may lack the comfort of having a physical unit, Teresa has made it a priority for her employees to feel as though they have a home.