Shannon is an incredible nurse manager in the best of times, but with COVID and all the challenges and obstacles it has presented, she has truly stepped up as a leader for staff. I know she was inundated with questions from her nurses, MAs, LPNs, and fellow ANM in addition to countless updates from CHOA leadership; she was sandwiched between demands and needs on both levels. She responded to every question and concern, whether through email or phone call, or in person. She was open and honest about the current circumstances. She communicated effectively and efficiently to all of us on a real-time basis whether she knew the answer or what the plan was or not. If she didn't know, she worked tirelessly to find out and always circled back to let us know what she did find out. Shannon exemplified authentic, transparent, and supportive leadership.
I cannot say enough about how she embodied this concept during COVID. She was empathetic to the added stresses and hardships, both at work and at home, during the pandemic. She advocated for us and fought hard to get us hours whether screening employees or patients/families, doing COVID testing, or any other opportunity that came up. She was flexible and understanding that if we were not able to get the hours needed to support our families at CHOA, that we could file unemployment or look for other jobs- temporarily or permanently to take care of ourselves. With so many unknowns, knowing Shannon had our backs and was working for us was a priceless gift of relief.
Most recently, she has advocated for us to have N95 masks while doing COVID testing. She provided the masks and informed us of the process to have them cleaned at whatever location we were doing testing at. This action meant the world to us doing the testing as we were seeing more and more positive cases, being spit on, sneezed on, coughed on, thrown up on during testing. Additionally, some children are especially resistant to the testing- yelling, screaming, squirming, fighting, kicking, etc. and require extra hands or to be held down in order to perform the test safely. The resistance means respiratory droplets are flying around and PPE gets jostled. It is emotionally exhausting and worries about bringing COVID home to high-risk family members weighed heavily on us. However, we knew we were carrying out the Children's mission to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow by doing pre-surgery COVID testing.
Shannon's advocacy and support allowed us to continue passionately caring for kids and their families without feeling like we had to choose between our safety and the job we love. She is a role model for leadership and inspires me to work hard and care harder about my coworkers.