Walter is a leader who believes in supporting staff. He rounds and ensures staff feel comfortable and know they are supported. He listens to the nurses and will intervene as necessary for patient safety and staff welfare. He is a strong nurse advocate and will intervene with the MD when he feels the need for increased patient care is not met. He ensures staff and patient safety by keeping his clinical skills.

Walter is skilled at the bedside and will work in the unit if necessary due to staff shortages. Per the Assistant Manager, he will work at the bedside to enable the charge nurse to obtain necessary leadership skills through practice. He will offer suggestions and praise while providing feedback discretely to enable people to move forward in their journey towards improvement and advancement.

When he is the house supervisor, Walter leaves the door open and engages the staff to ensure camaraderie and support. He comes early and greets the staff as he walks in. Staff speak highly of Walter and enjoy working with him. He speaks of the staff as his team and recognizes all members. He recognized and supported the EVS staff who worked hard during COVID. He shared how he watched E. in EVS collect the many bags from PPE while walking down the hall. When she felt overwhelmed, Walter helped her as much as he could.

Walter is willing to listen and offer input for improvement. He is engaged with staffing matrices and ratios along with improvements in the morgue and float pool. He is an advocate for the hospital improving and growing. He is willing to share positive feedback along with suggestions on how to improve processes and efficiency. His many years of experience here give Walter a unique viewpoint on how to improve processes while enabling staff to feel comfortable with the change and grow.

Walter exhibits professional pride. He ensures he is putting his best foot forward when he comes by coming prepared and physically with neatly pressed scrubs. That extra step exhibits pride and respect for the profession. Walter may be the most useful one of us in the whole hospital. He is a jack of all trades. He not only is a strong house supervisor, but he is also capable of filling so many roles and he graciously volunteers to do so. There have been many times that we have been short in ICU or PCU as well as in the monitor tech position, and Walter has saved us by filling in. My team would like to nominate Walter for the DAISY Nurse Leader Award.