As UNMH experiences extreme staffing shortages, it is integral that we can count on one another to work as a team, doing our absolute best to deliver efficient and effective patient care, all while prioritizing patient safety and advocacy. As a Nurse Supervisor on 4-East, Gina Blanton illustrates what it means to “count on someone”. Gina serves as an exceptional leader, team member, nurse, advocate, and friend. In the current state of UNMH, more often than not, Gina is asked to be a charge nurse, take 5 patients, and be a unit HUC. While these extreme work conditions foster an environment that is unsafe and stressful, Gina does her best in ensuring that her RNs feel supported and the patients feel heard. Even when having a 5 patient assignment, Gina somehow manages to put out fires everywhere on the floor. You will often find her in patient’s rooms – drawing blood cultures and/or getting hard IVs, hanging TPN for an RN that is running behind, cleaning and changing linen for a patient who is soiled, running to grab Zofran for a patient who is throwing up, reinforcing a leaking WVAC, and medicating patients when the primary RN is tied up elsewhere. No task is too small for Gina. More than that, though, and what makes her so extraordinary, is that she sees each patient as a person and not as a diagnosis. In the chaos of the healthcare field, it is easy to get lost among the tasks. More often than not, there isn’t time, nor staff, to focus on anything more than your day-to-day med passes and wound care. Gina, however, while supervising a heavy floor and juggling a 5 patient assignment, will pull up a chair and sit at the bedside with a patient who is restless and confused, serving as a reminder that they are safe and never alone. There is a quote that says, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more – you are a leader.” That is what Gina does for 4-East. By exhibiting outstanding patient care and teamwork despite the conditions that she is dealt, she inspires those who work alongside her to go that extra mile – for each other and for the patients.