Melissa Marrero, MSN, RN, CWCN is our Assistant Nurse Manager at the Morristown Wound Healing Center. She is an exemplary nurse leader that exhibits above and beyond behavior that makes her an amazing person to work for and a pleasure to be part of her team.
As our nurse manager, she always models extraordinary behavior. Mel is an advocate across the board. She advocates for employees as well as for her patients. Mel pushes for approval for her employees to attend conferences to further knowledge, take continuing education classes for everyday work and courses to gain advanced degrees such as a BSN or MSN. She advises management for the need for additional staff to facilitate the best care for our patients and the well-being of our staff. We can go to her anytime to address issues and she not only listens to our problems but helps to solve them and comes up with great resolutions or finds out how we can work out the situation.
Mel creates an environment where attributes of trust, compassion, and mutual respect, continued professional development and ethical behavior are modeled and supported. She has a true open-door policy. She values participating in hospital-wide committees such as shared governance and champions/chairs for committees such as Wellness and Patient Safety so that we really have a say in decision making. Mel is constantly on top of practitioner behavior in order to protect their privacy and make sure they are given the best care. She takes time with patients. One example includes going over paperwork with a patient and his wife for the geriatric assessment center for them to complete it. Without her help, the patient would never finish it and probably not go to the appointment. She is so kind and patient. She jumps in when needed in the clinic with patients and will stay late to make phone calls to patients for the next day to confirm their appointments.
Mel motivates staff with a shared vision and enthusiasm to achieve better outcomes for themselves and their patients. We case manage and are given time out of our clinic so we can follow up and collaborate with the practitioners in order to improve patient care. The staff has been awarded multiple achievements including many DAISY awards, PRIDE awards, BEST award, and patient satisfaction where we ranked in Tier 1. She encourages all staff that can do PACT to do so and we have 100% participation. In addition to that, she helps with any questions or concerns.
Mel promotes and enhances the image of nursing within the organization, the community, and the profession. As a department, we have donated to multiple organizations including bicycle helmet drive, backpack drives, and the Salvation Army. Volunteering at community health fairs and foot screenings are great ways we give back to our communities.
Melissa Marrero, our Wound Healing Center leader, is a wonderful person and she always advocates for us and her patients. She is an amazing role model and we value all her hard work and dedication to make us the best nurses we can be.