Laura Reitmeier is a shining example of what it means to be a Nurse Leader!

I have had the pleasure to work alongside Laura for over ten years on the Acute Care Medicine Unit and it is my honor to nominate her for the DAISY Nurse Leader Award! I would like to highlight a few examples of how Laura has greatly contributed to the development of strong professional practice on the unit.

Laura has been an integral leader who has shown dedication and extraordinary attention to the development of Acute Care Medicine, especially in the past year and a half when we experienced a huge culture change and physically relocated.

She has always been a positive leader but since our move, her leadership has strengthened. Due to the pandemic, a lot of changes were needed throughout the hospital and on our unit, our team was challenged with a faster-paced environment that we needed to grow and get accustomed to. Throughout all this, the team has remained at the center of Laura’s decisions.

Laura not only leads by example; she supports the team to provide the best, safest possible care to our patients. She has persevered through daily, weekly, and monthly changes that have come along, through the unit transition. She is committed to continuously re-evaluating what works and what doesn’t, seeking feedback during our monthly team meetings, and checking in with staff personally, ensuring that we, the front-liners have a voice in unit decision-making. She helps maintain and improve the rich culture on the unit. 

Laura showed her true compassionate spirit, recently.  We had a patient who had reached end of life. When we originally admitted this patient, she coded immediately and was transferred to the ICU, then was later readmitted to us. We took care of her for a couple of weeks prior to her passing. Upon admission to us the second time around, the family was dealing with not only the emotional shock of their mother’s recent cancer diagnosis (state 4 pancreatic cancer) but also the complicated and traumatic hospital course. The family had a bad experience early on in her admission, and had severe complications from the Intraosseous access which required additional interventions, and a few other issues. It became clear quickly that the family was mistrusting of the medical team and they felt uncomfortable having men care for their mother. Additionally, they were not comfortable unless at least one of them was present at all times to ensure their mother’s safety and comfort were a priority.

Laura was aware of the family's distress given their hospital course. She was also aware of the toll this family was taking on the team. Not only was the process of accommodating the family’s concerns time-consuming but was also emotionally and mentally challenging. Laura has always advocated to support patients, their families, and the team and this situation was no exception.

She quickly put together a plan and prescheduled nurses to take care of this patient both day and night (these were mainly seasoned RNs on the unit). She made herself fully available either in person or via her cell phone to address any concerns expressed by the patient, the patient’s family, and the team. The enormous support the family had from her helped reduce the tension, mistrust, and frustration on both parties. She gathered every update she could get from the providers regarding the plan of care and carefully held daily individual and group family meetings to ensure there was transparency and clear communication. She made sure all questions were addressed with candor and with compassion. She advocated for this patient without any hesitation. 

Laura worked tirelessly with this family to regain their trust and support them through this tragic time. She held countless meetings between the family and providers, serving as a support person while modeling honest, open, and transparent communication. She guided them through the most difficult process of transitioning to comfort care, explaining all that it entailed and what we could do to make the patient as comfortable as possible toward the end of her life. The family was extremely hesitant at first, as the severity of the patient's illness and the gravity of the situation had not been fully accepted by all. The patient had five children and many grandchildren, so the decision-making was even more difficult due to different opinions and preferences. When a family vote approach was used to make the final decision, again, Laura created an environment of trust and respect throughout the process, then the decision to make the patient comfort care was finalized. It was then that we were able to administer fentanyl nebulizer treatments and IV medications to ease the patient's work of breathing and help make her comfortable. Though they were hesitant at first, they were able to see immediately how much more comfortable their mother looked and was surrounded by her loved ones. As nurses, we want our patients to pass with as much dignity and comfort as possible; Laura advocated for both.

Her positive attitude towards the many changes makes her even more deserving of this award. Sometimes we focus so much on other people and forget to recognize the strong and deserving leaders who keep helping us move forward! She truly went above and beyond, and what an honor it is to have her as our leader! Laura is a shining example of a DAISY Nurse Leader. 

In summary, we cannot be more pleased with the success Laura has led us into. She is to be commended and recognized for her untiring efforts to improve both patient and team member satisfaction and for her impressive leadership that supports this organization’s vision of creating the best place to work. She has a vast understanding of the organization's vision and goals, and her decision-making ability is remarkable.