I have been lucky enough to work with Erica for the last 7 years of my nursing career, with the last 5 years as a direct report as she is my ACM. When I think of who would embody this hospital the best, I think of Erica! I cannot think of a person that I've come across who works harder for her patients and her co-workers. When Erica is the charge nurse or just on the floor doing paper time, she often pops into patient rooms to help out with admissions or when pumps are beeping or in many other capacities. While she is in there, she will clean up the room and organize. She will also learn about the patients' and families' life histories and find out how to best care for their whole being. She will come out of a room and know what school he kids attend and what the grandma did for a living. She will also somehow know what the patient needs to receive the best care during their stay.

As a leader, I cannot speak highly enough of how much she has helped me personally in my practice. She has challenged me to reach farther and push myself farther than I would have imagined. I have become both a resource and a charge nurse on our floor, both of which I never thought I would ever do in my practice. Erica helped sway me in that direction and has been very supportive as I transitioned into these roles.

She is accessible almost 24/7 for any work problem that may come up. The first thing she does when she meets a new direct report, is to give them her phone number and tell her to call or message her with any problem. And she means it! I've been fortunate to only have a small handful of difficult situations, but Erica has called me while I was on my couch to make sure I was ok following a certain situation and let me talk it out and cry it out. I know I always have her in my corner!

I could go on for hours about all the smaller things she does on a daily basis, like how her office door is always open when she's here and that she is here late into the night because people are always stopping in to talk about work things or life things. Or that she always has candy in her office. Or that we often share photos of my cats and her kids/dogs. Or that she knows my siblings by name and asks about them often. I could go on for hours, but I'll limit it to these examples.

Erica is one of the hardest workers I have come across, and although we give her praise from our end (not nearly often enough), I believe she needs greater recognition for all of the hard work that she puts into this place on a daily basis.