Susan's charm, intelligence, easy smile and laughter, her passion and her effortless ability to articulate her thoughts are only few of her qualities that all of us in the department recognize. On occasions too many to count, she has soothed the most irate parent, a parent who later will ask specifically for her. A good communicator is one who has the ability to listen to what someone is saying, and Susan does that with ease and grace. She is authentically compassionate, something that comes across in all of her communications, whether oral or written. She is indefatigable in her efforts to improve departmental communication. She constantly sends out emails to keep the unit, the department and the hospital up to date in developments, concerns and management. She supports anyone who has an idea to improve communication, no matter how small or insignificant. She has worked so very hard in the past months to communicate to management the unsafe effects of merging NSC and IPS.

Susan consistently demonstrates the courage of her convictions. When she sees something that needs improvement, she immediately sets out to resolve the issue, no matter how difficult or uphill the battle might be. For example, if she has information that a patient may not be an appropriate admission, whether for safety reasons, or staffing issues, or for whatever reason, she does everything she can do to meet the needs of that patient as well as all the admitted patients. Recently, after the merging of Inpatient NSC and IPS, Susan approached higher management officials and voiced her concerns about the unit's safety. When no immediate changes were made, she fearlessly continued to go up the chain of command to effect change.

She constantly works to ensure a safer and more effective unit. In the past several months the unit has faced a number of serious issues. With determination, strength of conviction and courage, Susan has led the efforts to identify and articulate to hospital leadership the required needs and changes necessary to improve patient care and safety.

Within the last month, a crisis involved the need to resuscitate a patient. Susan not only helped resuscitate the patient, but also by her professionalism and compassion, led the unit staff through the crisis, including making counseling available to staff. And she made sure that the staff was credited with superior performance during a life-threatening crisis. Finally, she called the patient's parents and with her natural and authentic compassion broke the news of their child's condition.

Susan demonstrates a remarkable ability to listen to, without prejudgment, different points of view, always keeping in mind the needs of the unit. On many occasions and without being asked she'll intervene and assist staff with their work. She always knows what needs to be done and steps in and takes on the task. For example, if a patient is ready to be admitted from ED but the nurses on the unit are occupied, she will herself perform the admission. Further, she will converse with challenging parents and patients, listening to their points of view, trying to meld them with hospital policy. As an example, one parent voiced her strong opposition to the number of visitors the hospital allowed on the unit at a given time. Susan calmed the parent with an alternative plan that satisfied both the parent and conformed to hospital policy. She has that rare ability to listen to both sides of any personnel issue and find opportunity not blame. When there is controversy on the unit, she brings the staff together to find solutions that will improve the working of the unit, not just for the short term but for the future. For example, a staff person grew concerned about how some potentially devastating news might affect a patient. The staff person requested her superior on call to place the patient on a higher precaution. The supervisor refused. The staff person continued to voice her concern, and the supervisor finally relented and placed the patient on higher precaution. But during the controversy, the staff person felt her opinion was discounted, even invalidated, and a few days later voiced her frustrations to Susan. Rather than placing blame, Susan used the situation as an opportunity to put in place different processes to ensure that staff concerns are heard and acted upon. As one MHC observer said, Susan "looks at us as people, not just as employees."

Susan's vision for the unit is evident in her determination to improve communication between all disciplines. She always evaluates any changes made to the unit whether positive or negative and explains results to leadership. Prior to the merging of NSC and IPS, Susan worked on ways to improve an already fairly effective therapeutic environment. She elicited ideas from personnel to fine-tune those procedures that were working. She supported unit RNs who redefined their roles to be more patient-driven and less paper-driven by changing the structure of the nurses' station to allow for a secretary to assist with answering phones and the overload of required paperwork. She is a leader in shared governance indeed, she places great value on this process and supports not only nurses but MHC in their shared endeavors to improve the unit. Ever since the merging of NSC and IPS, Susan has started from ground zero and has worked tirelessly to reinstate the integrity of both units especially by encouraging and supporting staff during this difficult transition, and by involving herself in a myriad of hospital committees that can help restore the unit to its former status.

Susan has been part of the successful planning and implementation of SAMA (Satori Alternatives for Managing Aggression). This has resulted in a 90% decrease in hands-on intervention, as well as fewer patient complaints and injuries to both patients and staff. She remains focused on the goals of "Target Zero" SAMA's stated purpose to prevent all serious injuries.

Susan initiated the "Unit Improvement Project," in which individuals and/or groups develop a project either on their own or as a team to improve the unit. She led the project from the outset, assisting staff to develop their own projects. And she encourages them to go above and beyond their normal responsibilities. For example, one MHC reported that Susan motivated him to better perform his duties, explaining that he had tried to get a promotion but had been rejected multiple times. Just when he had decided to give up, Susan persuaded him to continue, inspiring him to believe in himself and helping him face every obstacle that stood in his way. He said, "She treats me like a person who has value and is a valued employee."

Susan believes in an "open door policy" at any time of the day. Mental health counselors, nurses, nurse practitioners, therapists and doctors are seen waiting outside her door to consult with her. One of her many assets, as stated before, is her ability to listen without prejudgment. Her words of encouragement and her desire to help others have strengthened our unit in many ways. Staff report that they now feel heard and valued, not only as employees but as individuals. She works mostly the evening shift, where she has lifted its effectiveness with her guidance and creative insights. Staffs on the evening shift report that they feel safer because of her presence. Following the recent crisis to our unit (as state above), her personal counseling of effected staff has been extremely helpful and comforting.

Just by the nature of her job, collaboration is extremely important. She is an active member of Shared Governance, part of the Leadership Committee, SAMA, and is a full participant in 6th committee and monthly meetings, to name just a few. She works closely with ED to help admit patients with a minimum of red tape and to develop a smooth transition to better care and manage challenging patients. She is collaborating with Kelly Johnson and others on the recent tragedy to help further understanding of what happened and what can be done in the future to ensure our children's safety. This is just another example of her ability to seize on an event even a tragedy to improve and further the science of behavioral health.

Susan is an outstanding role model, she models professionalism and the highest integrity. Her positive attitude is contagious. She encourages staff to pursue excellence, and challenges everyone to improve care by embracing meaningful change. She works with many task forces to develop plans for change, but she will not compromise safety. She is instrumental in effecting change by clearly communicating the reasons behind the change. One staff member explains: "I thought a recent change would be less than positive for our unit, but when Susan explained the reasons for it, she not only respected me as an adult but helped me understand. I appreciated this very much and was willing to give the change a chance." Susan's unique ability to treat others with honor and respect is the main reason that change has been effective on our unit. But by no means does she seek change for change's sake. She always evaluates the effects of change on our unit and passionately expresses the impact of that, whether positive or negative.

In conclusion, this nomination for The Daisy Award may have been written by me, but the unit at large gave input and supports this. She is such a breath of fresh air to our unit, the department and the hospital at large. We feel very fortunate to have such an outstanding,superior,leader on our team.