A team of Clinical Psychologist, Psychiatrist and Director of Mental Health nominated Susan. Their nomination:

We have observed Susan as co-workers on 6A for a combined 14 years. We have continually observed her to demonstrate excellence in Veteran Care. She tirelessly and, often thanklessly, ensures that each Veteran served on our mental health units is provided with personalized, outstanding service. We have observed her de-escalate Veterans who were in distress, assist tearful Veterans with a kind word and, when volunteer Service does not have the personal items that the Veterans need during their stays, Susan provides these basics for them from her own funds; even at time of this writing (i.e. this morning), a veteran reported that he was touched by Susan, who went out of her way to provide him with a toothbrush when there were no toothbrushes on the unit. Susan is an outstanding advocate for Veterans in every way, ensuring that Veteran's access the services most likely to be helpful on their recovery journeys. Beyond the scope of this award, we will continue to encourage Susan to pursue additional education with VA support as she embodies the very best of VA Nursing.

For the last 1.5 years, we have had access to Press Ganey Surveys, which are distributed to veterans at discharge. Of all our staff, whether Nursing, Psychology, Social Work, Rec. Therapist, Susan has received the most number of positive Veteran comments about her work. To have some perspective, we received approximately 150 comments during this time that names a staff member by name. 32 of the 152 comments (21%) were positive comments about Susan. To put it in perspective, Susan received 10 times more positive comments from Veterans about her care than ANY other provider during this time period, which reflects excellence in her practice from the perspective not only of us as clinicians but also of Veterans who serve.