Audrey Scully
March 2011
Audrey
Scully
,
BSN, RN
Pediatric Neurology Outpatient Clinic
Children's National Health System
Washington
,
DC
United States

 

 

 

I have the pleasure to work with Audrey in the Department of Neurology Clinic at the Children's National Medical Center for the past 20 years. Audrey is a phenomenal nurse who has essentially run the neurology outpatient program for the past two decades. She has tremendous clinical skills and can always recognize when a child is in distress. Her care has always been family centered and she has run advocacy programs in epilepsy and other aspects of pediatric neurology. She has worked with the District of Columbia government in developing advocacy programs for children with neurologic conditions such as epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disabilities. She works closely with the family and includes them in all of the programs.

Audrey has been a leader in helping the Neurology Department implement evidence-based practice. She was the representative for the Children's National Medical Center's application for Magnet nursing status. She not only took the lead within neurology, but also has been a leader in the entire institution on this journey, as Children's National was awarded Magnet status upon first application. Children's National recognized Audrey for her extraordinary efforts in this process.

She continues to take lead within the department of Neurology in safety initiatives. She has developed performance measures and has carried out this research, in collaboration with the physicians within the division and other nurses. Much of this performance improvement and safety evaluation activities have been done with the collaboration of parents and our patients.

Audrey has worked on a local, national, and international levels in areas such as pediatric epilepsy, working with our large pediatric epilepsy team. Her involvement in public policy through the advocacy program (performed in collaboration with the District of Columbia's advocacy programs) has been tremendously successful.

Audrey has been able to accomplish all these tasks while being the primary nurse manager for the outpatient program in neuroscience at the Children's National Medical Center. This is not a small undertaking, as the Neurology Department is one of the largest in the world, now numbering more the 30 staff pediatric neurologists, 5 nurse practitioners, and a large cohort of pediatric neurology fellows, pediatric residents and neurology residents. Audrey does all this work with an even temperament and is a phenomenal co-worker. She has been a mentor to scores of nurses over the past 20 years. Audrey is a tremendous candidate for the DAISY Award.