I am honored to nominate Ms. Maria Soledad for the prestigious DAISY Nurse Leader Award.  She is a longtime Miami VA employee. She started as a bedside Critical Care nurse and transitioned herself with gut and tenacity to be the strong leader she is known for. She’s been in a leadership role since 2016 and created a high standard of work ethics in both MICU and PCU thus leading her staff to follow. Ms. Soledad is a dedicated, knowledgeable, and compassionate leader. Her strong leadership skill was tested during the height of the COVID pandemic. Her MICU unit was designated to be the COVID hot zone. She tackled the job of organizing, educating, and prioritizing the health and morale of the staff to battle the difficult task of taking care of very sick COVID patients. She maintains an open-door policy and dedicated herself to guiding and nurturing her staff both clinically and professionally. She deftly handles difficult situations like disgruntled family members and distraught patients with ease and compassion. She is able to communicate effectively with the veterans by maintaining their pride and dignity. Ms. Soledad is known for her work ethic, she took over managing the SICU department winning the respect of the staff and the doctors alike while they are looking for a permanent nurse manager. When the situation arises that the staffing is short, you will find Ms. Soledad transporting and monitoring patients for procedures, and she is not afraid to roll her sleeves and assist nurses to give bedside care to critically ill patients. She will come at any hours when called for including her days off just to be a patient sitter when no one is available to take care of the patient. I wish I can list more of her traits that are not accounted for but on behalf of MICU and PCU crew, we are extremely lucky to have her as our leader.