I came to 2PS July of 2022 to work an internal contract for Riverside Regional Medical Center. Having been a travel nurse since 2017 I have seen many different managers come and go throughout my career. Amber Morgan immediately stood out as an excellent manager. She was personable, fair and respectful but most of all I noticed that she was more approachable than any other manager I had before.

Through her open-door policy, she has shown genuine interest in our concerns as nurses on the floor when it came to staffing and resources. She was frequently able to settle customer service issues with patients' families and enforce the rules of the floor, which were applied to nurses and physicians in a fair and equitable manner. I can recall a time when she enforced our isolation policies to be applicable to doctors in addition to staff and families. A leader in American Business, Harold S Geneen, once said: “A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his/her people are not afraid to approach him/her for any reason.”

I feel Amber is the embodiment of that statement. I have been able to voice my ideas and concerns through her open-door policy, shared moments where I have cried, and she has been emotionally supportive of the challenges I have faced in life. She is sensitive to and patient with others' interpersonal anxieties. She has made me feel that working on her floor is like being part of a family. She makes me want to be a better nurse, and she is not afraid to offer constructive criticism when I am wrong or in need of doing better with charting or practice. In fact, it is because of Amber’s direction and empowering leadership that I am now motivated to sign up for the SCRN certification this winter after having worked for many years in Neuro.

Moreover, she encourages ethical behaviors by imploring nurses to hold each other accountable when it comes to everyday moral and ethical issues such as bathing and cleaning patients. In doing so, nursing care on 2PS and 2PW more closely reflect the Riverside value of “Caring for others as we would care for ourselves and loved ones”. Frequently, I find her stepping onto the floor to assist in such tasks when staffing is thin or turnover is high, leading me to believe that she practices the values she has encouraged in others, setting an example for the nursing staff. She is especially careful to pay attention to patients who may not have family or less of a voice to make their needs known, such as prisoners and cognitively impaired patients.

I also notice that when nurses from other floors float to the Neuro floor they have good things to say about Amber Morgan. Her commitment to Riverside Regional Medical Center and the image of nursing is demonstrated by the fact that she has had over 10 travel nurses who left Riverside to work at other hospitals, later return to work as internal employees on the Neuro unit because of her fair and impartial leadership. Talking to my fellow coworkers I have also found out that she works over 60 hours a week to ensure that patients are taken care of, including making herself available on the weekends.

In summary, Amber is selfless; she cares in such a way that she can make a deep impact on our hospital and community. She is unique to the point that if other nurses and I work with her could keep her as our manager for the rest of our working careers, we would. She knows and understands that patients take the goodness and compassion that we have shown them out into the world, and that reflects on us as an institution. Her leadership encourages us as nurses to find the best values and behaviors within ourselves to help others no matter who they might be. I will always be grateful that I came to Riverside and found such a wonderful manager.