This nomination is for an extraordinary nurse who works in the Neuroscience ICU. Sarah's journey started as a Care Partner in 2017 with supplemental staffing. I recall times when she was assigned to the Neuroscience ICU. She was eager to learn, had amazing time management skills, was extremely altruistic, had a natural bedside manner that patients adored, and brought a positive, upbeat attitude with her no matter what was happening in the day. If you ever worked with her, you know exactly what I am talking about!

Flash forward and Sarah is this exceptional leader, mentor, peer, advocate, role model, and professional nurse in the NSICU, who has become an essential part of the team. Over the past 5 years, Sarah has grown from being a new graduate nurse to teaching nursing students, precepting new hires, and being a routine charge nurse. Sarah recently graduated from VCU with her master’s degree in nursing leadership and organizational science, but her degree is not the reason for the nomination. Her education gave her tools for leadership growth, but Sarah Polson is a true leader.

Within the past year, we had a patient who was critically ill, requiring multiple days on the ventilator. Without a doubt, Sarah provided care to this patient that went above and beyond. It is not uncommon for Sarah to bring in soap and shampoo to untangle matted hair or give her patient a clean shave however, what I want to highlight is her leadership skills in escalating safety concerns to identify a solution. While caring for this patient, Sarah noticed that he had many unexpected visitors stopping by, asking about his condition. His family was unable to be at his bedside and Sarah questioned whether this patient would want these individuals seeing him in this condition. Sarah called the family and explained the situation. She asked the family if this were something that patient would want. The family expressed that he would not, and Sarah gave the family options to limit visitors. Over the next few days, this was difficult to limit as the visitors knew where he was located. Sarah, again, spoke with family over the phone and thought of a new idea. Sarah advocated that the patient be placed under an alias and moved away from the elevator. This was no easy task. Although she kept hitting barriers, Sarah persevered. Sarah is a role model to every nurse on this unit - new hires and seasoned. She is a strong patient advocate with safety in the forefront of everything she does.


Over the next few days, this was still a problem since people were using their badges to get into the unit or using the elevators located right next to his room. Sarah, again, spoke with the family over the phone and thought of a new idea. Sarah advocated that the patient be placed under an alias and moved away from the elevator. This was no easy task. Although she kept hitting barriers, Sarah persevered. Sarah is a role model to every nurse on this unit - new hires and seasoned. She is a strong patient advocate with safety at the forefront of everything she does.

Sarah can walk into any situation and provide a strong leadership presence. I noticed this the other day when we had a patient who was decompensating quickly. In the middle of helping to provide critical care to the patient, Sarah anticipated the need for code roles and helped assign them. This forward thinking and early delegation of assigned roles in a code is a strong leadership skill. This is how Sarah is every day. After the event, I praised Sarah and she replied humbly, "I am just trying to be a great leader."

As a preceptor, Sarah easily adapts her teaching skills to meet the needs of her orientees. Sarah has created numerous charts, printouts, and quick cheat sheets through her years of precepting that helped her orientees. She precepted and guided so many new hires. She is also a leader that other preceptors go to when they have questions or concerns with preceptor challenges.

As a charge nurse, Sarah’s leadership skills shine. She has an admirable questioning attitude. Sarah is often charge on the weekend when there are fewer formal leaders. Sarah seamlessly notices safety concerns and identifies solutions. She motivates the team, is approachable, and sets the tone for a great shift.

The NSICU charge nurse responds to all the hospital stroke alerts. Sarah responds to these alerts, offers help beyond expectations, and is a great representation of the unit. She leads these critical and difficult situations with ease, provides expert guidance to nurses, and critically thinks on a whim.

Sarah has recently taken on a big project for our unit, which is updating many of our guidelines. One of these was for equipment used to measure brain oxygenation. She looked up literature, borrowed a simulation version to ensure that every instruction was correct, and put effort into making the information easy to read for non-NSICU nurses. What stuck with me was when Sarah would be reading about an everyday task we routinely do and ask, "Why?" She is not afraid to question our current practices and ensures that we are providing up-to-date, evidence-based practice care. This is not something anyone would expect of a Clinical Nurse Ill, but this is a quality that is natural for Sarah.

She is a bedside nurse who has taken on such a strong role and presence as an informal leader; she goes beyond what is expected of her and lifts others up along the way. Thank you, Sarah, from everyone here on the NSICU!