What you may not know is that Priscilla was a Daddy’s girl.  She often says her father taught her to be a tough and independent woman.  She can change a tire and anytime furniture needs to be assembled on the floor or a screwdriver or hammer is needed- Priscilla whips one out of her desk and says, “I am your girl.”   At the start of the pandemic, Priscilla lost her father here at Jefferson.  In his honor and memory, Priscilla developed a homeless/needs cart.  She organized and created a large cart full of clothes, undergarments, and socks for staff to take and give to a patient in need. All of the items are Priscilla’s Dad, and it puts a smile on our faces when we see a homeless patient being discharged with her father’s warm and comfy flannel.  She also purchased other items, such as reader glasses, nail files, and other hygiene products, to put on the cart.   She stocks the floor with crayons, coloring books, and other items she purchased herself for patients. Other floors know where to come when they need certain items, and the cart truly does service the whole hospital.  

Prior to having a wound care RN who had ostomy training, the surgical floors found themselves in need of ostomy education and resources to be able to give to patients with new ostomies. Priscilla took it upon herself to be the ostomy superuser. She became very clinically competent and put together an ostomy resource box for clinical nurses to have access to and grab educational literature to give to their patients.  She also worked with the Ostomy reps from different companies to get samples, supplies, and reading material for the patients.        
           
When the tower opened, the staff were struggling with the size of the unit and how to communicate with each other.  We also struggled with responsiveness rates and assisting the patients in a timely manner.  Priscilla devised a system where she programmed all of the floor's iPhones to be in a continuous text messaging feed.  Every staff member on the floor carries an iPhone on their shift and every phone is on the feed.  When the secretary answers the call bells, or an employee is in need of assistance they type it on the chat.  When someone is going to assist the patient or the staff member in need, they hit the like button, so the team knows the task was completed or communicated.  Priscilla’s performance improvement project titled, “Utilizing iPhone Technology to increase HCHAPS Scores,” was a huge success, and she submitted an abstract for a national conference where she presented at the University of Iowa Hospital & Clinics National Evidence-based Conference in Coralville, Iowa.   Priscilla also researched other ways to communicate with staff and had staff download the “group me” app that she maintains and posts schedule announcements and other important messages to get out to staff.  
   
For employee recognition and engagement, Priscilla constructs and sends out monthly newsletters where she lists all the staff birthdays that month, special announcements such as graduations, babies and weddings!  She also has two staff members who write a few paragraphs about themselves a month, so staff get to learn about their peers’ special hobbies and other interests outside of work!  
     
Priscilla organized a Valentine’s Carnation flower sale this past Feb that raised $330 dollars for the Jefferson Health’s Animal-Assisted Workplace Wellness (AAWW) program in New Jersey. Jefferson has partnered with Crisis Response Canines to facilitate its AAWW program. This collaboration offers clinicians and support staff health and wellness support from the nonprofit’s highly trained and certified K9 teams. Crisis response Canines make regular hospital visits, and critical incident stress management services are available as needed. As part of the flower sale initiative, Callahan created custom tags for each floral arrangement with uplifting and empowering messages. Currently, Priscilla has just put together an Easter Egg sale for staff with prizes, and the donations will be used to make chemo snack bags for the Jefferson Cancer Center.   

Over the last few years, Priscilla has served as a mentor to not only our new-to-practice RNs but also mentored our senior nurses. Despite the fact that clinical coordinators are not 24/7 accountable for their unit---Priscilla does not abide by that and is always available to her staff.  

She carries the work phone on her off days and calls it “Clinical coordinating from the couch.” On her off days, staff continuously reach out to ask clinical questions, and even when some supplies are stored on the unit, Priscilla will always answer. She chairs the clinical coordinator meetings for the Washington Township campus and whenever a new manager or clinical coordinator starts here, she is called to instruct them on smart square and the payroll system. She has obtained mentor status in the Clinical Advancement program and services as a CAP resource nurse, assisting other nurses on the floor in putting together a CAP portfolio. She is also on the team that checks CAP portfolios that are submitted for the East region.