It would be hard to think of a better example of a selfless servant leader than my coworker Jennifer. She works and sacrifices more than she will let on to ensure that the sweet babies in our NICU receive the care they deserve and that the staff she works alongside have all the tools and resources they need to be their best selves as they deliver the highest quality of care. She is the perfect example of a leader role model, without complaint, she will take a team, jump in to assist with an admission, lend extra hands to assist with procedures, proactively (and often without having to be asked) deliver excellent and caring baby care for the simple fact that it needs to be done and she is available and always willing, she supports family and staff education giving support to preceptors and those still learning….all while being the example of a selfless and compassionate leader, peer and friend.  She selflessly stays far later than the hours she had planned to work for the day, without complaint, without rush. She is accessible, available, and responsive to the needs of the unit, she will run babies all over ETCH to swallow studies, MRIs, Nuclear Med studies, so the baby's nurse can stay behind and care for the rest of her team.

She promotes what is good and special about being a nurse at ETCH and especially a neonatal nurse.  When onboarding new grads, experienced nurses, and unit techs, she works to ensure a smooth onboarding process. She works hard to match the learning styles and personalities of the orientee and the preceptor. When tough days hit for someone orienting, and they come to her in tears because of a mistake, she never hesitates to lend a listening ear. Then she shares her own story of a difficult day in nursing school. A day when she felt like a failure, but she made the decision to go back to clinicals the next day because going back was the only way to get to live out her lifelong goal of being able to take care of babies. It always brings a smile to the listener's face to know that everyone can make a mistake and recover from it, learning, growing, and improving on the other side! 

Though extremely challenged this year with numerous NICU-specific education needs, a slew of new staff to wrangle, the relaunch and new project collaboration with the state in the Tiny Baby collaborative, a total rewrite of the documentation system and so many other tasks and projects, she still made time to participate in the recent Onboarding Sprint Team, engaging with other educators and leaders to use our department and her own experiences to collaborate and overhaul the entire process even though it created a lot of extra work, and frankly took the time that she didn’t really have to start with.  She did it because it matters because she wants our process to benefit the employee, help make it easier for the preceptors, and in the end help others achieve their life goal…the goal to become the best pediatric or neonatal nurse they can be.

I am so grateful she is here still living out her dream of taking care of these babies and that she became inspired to pour herself into others as she teaches, mentors, and befriends many of us along the way. The NICU, the hospital, the NICU babies, and the families, all are so lucky to have her here!