Karine Semczuk has been such an asset as a Nurse Leader in the Cath Lab and deserves recognition for all her hard work that often goes unnoticed. 

First and foremost, she cares deeply about her staff as both peers and as people. She checks in with people about their kids, pets, and other life circumstances- so much so that she is the first person anyone goes to when things are happening in their lives. Additionally, she promotes professional growth and creates opportunities for people to expand their skill sets and knowledge. Speaking for myself, she has been my biggest supporter and advocate for cross-training to the procedural side of Cath Lab nursing. She is willing to offer guidance, advice, and debriefing after tough cases and shows genuine interest in seeing me be successful in this role. She also serves as a mentor for others, especially for those looking to advance their nursing career into nursing leadership. She is someone that people can count on to provide wisdom and insight to help them be successful.

One of the biggest things that makes Karine an effective leader is her impact on morale. She makes sure that everyone feels heard. Recently there have been a couple of issues that staff have voiced their discomfort with the situation. She takes every incident in seriously and immediately takes action to mitigate the problem and address it directly. When needed, she escalates incidents to the proper channels, whether it be through Vigilanz or through leadership. She closes the communication loop with everyone when and how the issue is being addressed. I cannot state how meaningful it is when you feel truly heard and supported.

Lastly, Karine is a huge proponent of recognizing staff for their hard work and achievements. She constantly is showing her appreciation to staff within the department and in other areas using the ICARE platform. Recently she promoted nominating our peers for both the Employee of the Year and for Nursing Excellence Awards. She took the time to provide everyone with the nomination forms and helped people write some very genuine, authentic, and moving nominations for their peers (little known fact, Karine is a total word-smith). Whether these people received awards or not, the sentiment conveyed in this gesture is not lost on anyone and without a doubt deserves to be celebrated in its own right.

These are just a few of the many examples showing Karine’s incredible leadership skills that make her a DAISY Nurse Leader.