I have had the pleasure of working for some great leaders, some leaders that I learned great lessons from that were not necessarily good leaders, and some amazing “servant leaders”. Healthcare is a difficult arena for leaders and fraught with challenges related to the ever-changing healthcare environment of today.
Vickie Schnurbusch is a “hybrid leader”. She is a great leader and a servant leader. Vickie has some of the most challenging areas in healthcare to lead, Home Health, Palliative Care, and Hospice. The patients covered under these programs are typically the sickest of the sick and have amazingly complicated needs. She oversees Advanced Practice Nurses, RN Managers, nurses, nurse assistants, therapists, social workers, and clerical staff.
Vickie exemplifies compassion for her teams and the patients entrusted to our care. She models high-quality behaviors such as kindness, genuine concern for others, she believes the best in each of us, seeks to understand before being understood, and others. She is absolutely one of the best at creating a work environment built on a foundation of trust, honesty, compassion, mutual respect, ethical behavior, continued professional development, and collaboration between team members. She is accessible, available, transparent, and willing to work to a “yes” that benefits all involved parties.
John Maxwell, author and motivational speaker, defines a leader as “one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”.
Recently our region experienced days of unusually frigid sub-zero temperatures combined with ice, snow, and worsening winter weather. Vickie knew that many of our hospice patients would need medications and supplies during this time when our nurses may not be able to get to some of most rural patients due to hazardous road conditions. She took it upon herself to work with our hospice team to make sure medications and supplies were delivered. She even drove to our rural area and assisted in delivering medications and supplies to patients. Her spouse provided four-wheel-drive transportation for a nurse that needed to support a family as a patient was dying. She would never consider this going above and beyond. This is what was needed to provide for our patients and her servant leadership knew the way, went the way, and showed the way to our entire team.
As our Palliative Care team has experienced exponential growth Vickie has been such an amazing guiding force. She has so skillfully and selectively hired the right people at the right time to bring these much-needed services to the patients and families of SoutheastHEALTH. She has taken the front line over and over to facilitate understanding of palliative care, establish acceptance, and demonstrate the benefits palliative care is able to provide. She allows us input on program development and growth and is not ever one to take the credit or push her way to the front of a victory. Vickie wants her teams to excel and grow and have creative concepts. We appreciate her leadership as Vickie challenges us all to think outside of the box, take ownership in our programs, and have a good time helping others.