Most of you have known Tonya for many years, but only recently have had the honor and pleasure of working alongside her. In the relatively short time, only one year, mind you, that she has been a Director in the CVCU/CCU/CIMC, she has managed to make an enormous impact on all of those who have come to work with her. Her arrival in these roles came at a very difficult time for us, yet she managed to face the challenges of her new responsibilities without hesitation, show love and care for the staff, and patience unrivaled by anyone I have met in her position. Good leaders are hard to come by, and great ones are even harder to embody as they must possess a dangerous combination of charisma, fairness, and a willingness to put themselves on the front lines and lead by example.
     
Her qualities have made her an inspiration to both new and veteran staff, all of whom have found it very easy to follow her lead as she represents the UMC core values day in and day out. There might be some who might believe she is too strict, as she follows procedures and regulations like a bible and treats all with the fairness of those rules without compromise or any sign of favoritism. Although scheduling follows seniority, Tonya manages to make it fairly balanced between employees regardless of seniority. However, vacation spots are on a first come first served basis and nurses tend to take vacations without intending on leaving on vacation just in case they might need it. Tonya’s fairness and desire to treat all employees equally has made her find a way to give everyone the chance to find a spot and plan a desirable vacation, away from the previous tactics employed by the staff.

Over the course of my career, I have enjoyed working with dozens of Directors, and while they were all excellent, none have come to touch the work ethic and leadership qualities of Tonya. However, her open-door policy and the easy access with which she can be reached by her staff makes even those who would dislike her strict adherence to the rules follow her easily as a leader. Her compassion and care for her staff is seen daily in her interests for their wellbeing, both at work and at home, easily knowing when to encourage good work from her staff. A great example of this was her handling of a new employee who, after only two months of working for us, was stuck by family tragedy. Despite having worked there for a short time and not having enough hours to be able to take time off, Tonya made it possible for the employees to take the time necessary to deal with their family’s tragedy and return to work when they were ready. Tonya embodies the “first in, last out” as she comes in early every day to see how her staff have fared during the night shift, thus ensuring that she sees them before and after their shifts every day. 

Her passion and commitment extend to the patients and their families, and those unfortunate enough to require medical care have seen great improvements in the past year. In a great effort to improve the quality of care and decrease the incidence of pressure ulcers, Tonya collaborated with the wound care team to round regularly on our unit. They inspect the patient’s skin, change, or apply dressing when necessary, and educate bedside nurses as needed.  A care plan was created by taking daily pictures of all our patients so if, in any event, a skin breakdown is noted, treatment is decided to improve the outcome before it’s too late. She makes sure that we have special mattresses for all beds. It is not unusual to see Tonya moving beds around or taking a patient downstairs in a wheelchair who has been discharged home. She rounds on a regular basis, making sure that the care team, including PT, OT, and bedside nurses, increases mobility and ambulation for all patients. Her effort to improve quality of care extend to decrease to elimination as possible of CLABSI and CAUTI. She collaborates with the infection control team to do daily rounding on all patients with central lines and foley, making sure that if the lines are still in need, the guidelines to prevent infection are followed. Very vigilant and without discrimination regardless of who they are, from physicians to visitors, she will stop everyone entering a patients’ room making sure that they sanitize their hands upon entrance and exit, thus decreasing the incidence of carrying bacterial infection from patient to patient. 

She is never afraid to walk into the room when things become too much for the staff because of a patient’s health, thus she puts the staff, and patients, safety as a top priority. In one instance, a patient wanted to leave the hospital AMA, which would place him in a life-threatening situation. He was getting agitated and aggressive placing himself and the staff in danger. Tonya noticed that the patient had a positive response to one of the nurses who was helping with that matter. She approached the nurses and changed the assignment in the middle of the shift, stabilizing the situation. The patient was safely discharged a week later.

Her improvements to patient care extend to equipment and technological improvements, which we, as the staff, have been able to enjoy since she took the helm. Since she became our director heart surgeries increased from one-two a day to four-five a day also increasing the need of more equipment so need it for care such as glucometers, cables for monitoring, supplies at all kinds, not to mention computers so necessary for charting and passing medication. 

Tonya has the uncanny ability to feel when she is needed the most by her staff without anyone knowing she is needed, even herself. As she was getting ready to leave one time, she walked into CVCU one last time to say goodbye. However, we told her that OR had reported on a patient coming to us and he was placed on ECMO. In no time, Tonya got in touch with the OR, the surgical team, and the administration to decide what could be done for the patient’s safety and quality of care, taking into consideration that our unit wasn’t prepared to care for ECMO patients. The patient was safely transferred to an outside facility for care, as for us in very short period of time Tonya created education class for ECMO patients, soon after she created a designated place for ECMO equipment and modified specific rooms for such care. 
    
Tonya never asked anyone to do what she already does, and she expects nurses to love their job and treat their patients with the same kindness, devotion, fairness, and respect that they would show as if they cared for a loved one. Through her impeccable leadership values, she inspires us all to pay attention to every detail and needs of our patients, increasing the quality of care and outcomes needed to send our patients home to their families so they can enjoy a happy and healthy life.
    
In my career, I have never felt that a director would be more deserving of this esteemed award, and this would be not just Tonya’s achievement but UMC as she embodies its core values to the fullest.