Christy practices nursing with tremendous grace and I have never heard her complain or refuse a request. She goes above and beyond not just for her patients and their families, but for her coworkers as well. Due to the volume of patients, we see and the complex needs that sometimes come up late in the day, we need to stay late to make sure our patients are truly taken care of. Christy will not, and has never, let another nurse stay late by themselves. She is committed to helping and supporting those around her. She is very proactive and when she sees a need (either in clinic or in her teammates’ lives) she steps in and either creates a resource or finds something that already exists. She shows so much support and care for all of those around her and tries to make things easier for everyone. Christy genuinely worries about these families and will do the work of guiding them according to our policies and knowledge but will not conclude the task until she has followed up with the family to see if the issue has been resolved or if it needs to be escalated.

There was a specific incident where a child did not present for an appointment and had a complicated medical background. They were unreachable by phone and were in danger. She worked with social work and our on-call physician to seek them out. She was tenacious in seeking to keep this patient safe that (together with the involved teammates) was able to locate the child and make sure they received care that day.

Christy created the process for running the EMPOWER clinic by organizing lists of patients, creating resources, designing the flow of appointments, and carefully coordinating the follow-up appointments. It has required creativity and diligence to make it a smooth-running clinic (which it is), and it has helped many children with type 2 diabetes to improve their condition and receive support unique to their needs. The patients love her. She is their biggest cheerleader, and they know it. It means so much to the families and is just an example of how her kind heart and commitment shine through all she does.

In the past year, Christy volunteered to take on the responsibility of tracking and performing prior authorizations for our patients needing growth hormones. The process was seamless. We now have a PA specialist but when it was needed, Christy stepped right in and made sure no one would fall through the cracks. Additionally, Christy has voluntarily floated to the Healthy Lifestyle Clinic. Christy is someone who works quietly behind the scenes taking care of so many things with a tremendous heart, great care, and generosity of spirit. Her teammates and patients appreciate her.