Ruby K Gill
October 2019
Ruby
K Gill
,
DNP, MBA/HCM, RN, NE-BC
Nursing Administration
Kaiser Permanente Irvine Medical Center
Irvine
,
California
United States
When you ask any of Ruby’s colleagues and staff about her, they reveal her true leadership essence: Ruby is unequivocally the most generous, compassionate, and empathetic person, ever.
Since starting her nursing career with KP as a staff nurse in 2000, Dr. Ruby Gill has transitioned from charge nurse to ADA, DA and ultimately CNE of KP-IMC. Through evolving a shared governance structure, enhancing frontline engagement and nurturing interdisciplinary relationships, Ruby and her team have achieved trended exemplary outcomes including:
• Overall Hospital Rating: 80.8% (2012) to sustained improvement averaging 83.2% (Topbox 2013- 2019) • RN Communication: 77.9% (2012) to sustained trended improvement averaging 81.8% (Topbox 2013- 2019)
• Fall Rate greater than 1.25 (2012) to 0.64 (2019)
• HAPI Rate of 1.03 (2012) to 0.21 (2019)
• Numerous organizational accolades including: TJC TJR Certification, Leap Frog Garde A since inception, NICHE designation, Magnet designation and many more.
While the exemplary outcomes are impressive enough, it is not the legacy that Ruby will ultimately leave on our profession. When you ask any of Ruby’s colleagues and staff about her, they reveal her true leadership essence: Ruby is unequivocally the most generous, compassionate, and empathetic person, ever. She encounters every person on a humanistic level and relentlessly advocates for what is right.
One staff recalls, “I have seen Ruby enter the room of an upset patient who refused to relinquish his pocketknife to staff. After the nurses and security attempted to retrieve the knife and the situation was escalating, Ruby asked to talk with the patient. She asked the patient if she could sit with him and talk about what was troubling him. In a short time, the patient revealed his perception that no one was listening to him and (everyone) just wanted to take his stuff. He ultimately handed his knife to Ruby and the entire team was able to start to rebuild a healing relationship with the patient. This interaction reminded all of us of the vulnerability of our patients and the role we each play in maintaining a patient centered approach.”
Ruby’s advocacy does not end with the patients we serve. As described by one of Irvine’s UNAC past presidents, she was quite surprised and pleased when she first started working closely with this new CNE and discovered the book that Ruby was encouraging all of her managers to read: Patients Come Second: Leading Change by Changing the Way You Lead. The importance placed on this book and Ruby’s actions that followed spoke volumes for her priority placed on creating a fair, equitable, and fulfilling work environment for the team at IMC.
As a testament to her continued impact on nursing, the nursing administration composite of the NDNQI survey continues to reveal a trended improvement from a baseline of 3.92 (2015) with an average performance 4.31 over the last 4 years. Additionally, certification rates have gone from 9.4% (2013) to 36.2% (2019) and the BSN rate from 61.5% (2013) to 79.4% (2019).
In addition to the emphasis that Ruby places on staff empowerment, her doctoral research explored this concept amongst nursing managers. Through all of the accomplishments of our team, Ruby reminds us to remain humble as there remains much to accomplish for our patients and our team. We are each honored to get to work alongside this exemplary nurse leader.
• Overall Hospital Rating: 80.8% (2012) to sustained improvement averaging 83.2% (Topbox 2013- 2019) • RN Communication: 77.9% (2012) to sustained trended improvement averaging 81.8% (Topbox 2013- 2019)
• Fall Rate greater than 1.25 (2012) to 0.64 (2019)
• HAPI Rate of 1.03 (2012) to 0.21 (2019)
• Numerous organizational accolades including: TJC TJR Certification, Leap Frog Garde A since inception, NICHE designation, Magnet designation and many more.
While the exemplary outcomes are impressive enough, it is not the legacy that Ruby will ultimately leave on our profession. When you ask any of Ruby’s colleagues and staff about her, they reveal her true leadership essence: Ruby is unequivocally the most generous, compassionate, and empathetic person, ever. She encounters every person on a humanistic level and relentlessly advocates for what is right.
One staff recalls, “I have seen Ruby enter the room of an upset patient who refused to relinquish his pocketknife to staff. After the nurses and security attempted to retrieve the knife and the situation was escalating, Ruby asked to talk with the patient. She asked the patient if she could sit with him and talk about what was troubling him. In a short time, the patient revealed his perception that no one was listening to him and (everyone) just wanted to take his stuff. He ultimately handed his knife to Ruby and the entire team was able to start to rebuild a healing relationship with the patient. This interaction reminded all of us of the vulnerability of our patients and the role we each play in maintaining a patient centered approach.”
Ruby’s advocacy does not end with the patients we serve. As described by one of Irvine’s UNAC past presidents, she was quite surprised and pleased when she first started working closely with this new CNE and discovered the book that Ruby was encouraging all of her managers to read: Patients Come Second: Leading Change by Changing the Way You Lead. The importance placed on this book and Ruby’s actions that followed spoke volumes for her priority placed on creating a fair, equitable, and fulfilling work environment for the team at IMC.
As a testament to her continued impact on nursing, the nursing administration composite of the NDNQI survey continues to reveal a trended improvement from a baseline of 3.92 (2015) with an average performance 4.31 over the last 4 years. Additionally, certification rates have gone from 9.4% (2013) to 36.2% (2019) and the BSN rate from 61.5% (2013) to 79.4% (2019).
In addition to the emphasis that Ruby places on staff empowerment, her doctoral research explored this concept amongst nursing managers. Through all of the accomplishments of our team, Ruby reminds us to remain humble as there remains much to accomplish for our patients and our team. We are each honored to get to work alongside this exemplary nurse leader.