Viet, who is just in his second year as a nurse manager, has gone above and beyond to make a difference for the teams he serves. I believe the core mission for those of us in leadership roles is to create an ethical environment in which staff feel supported, patients have optimal outcomes, and lifelong learning is supported. Viet fulfills this mission, constantly seeking ways to improve every aspect of the environment.  

Viet stepped into the PICU interim manager role this winter during their seasonal surge in volume.  This was no easy task and he met it with grace and a plan.  Tactfully ensuring the structure supported the care they were delivering.  He was an integral part of creating an onboarding and ongoing competency structure that would support the PICU staff in ensuring they had the right skill mix at all time to care for their complex patient population.  He was able to secure a grant through AARP/AACN to help fund the education programs and assessment of the healthy work environment.  

Viet also conducted an admission nurse pilot on 45 patients; during the pilot, 100% of the patients that were able to participate had the inpatient admission assessment completed, which included a 4 eyes skin assessment.  Wound care consults were ordered on 16 of the patients and 10 patients had a hospital bed ordered and placed.  The big win of this pilot was completing a nutrition consult and WOCN consult within 24 hours to ensure optimal care for our boarding patients.  While just a small sample, Viet hopes to have this program continue at scale for the rest of boarding patients through the fall to help ease some of our capacity challenges and improve the quality of care.  

Viet has also teamed with several colleagues to improve the quality and consistency of our 1:1 program.  He is going for his green belt in which the focus was to implement q15 minute checks at University campus to help decrease 1:1 usage and help with discharge planning. 

Viet created a dot phrase with a provider colleague to document trending pulse ox to help expedite discharge by having the appropriate information for insurance authorization.  

Viet frequently goes down to the emergency department (where he was an assistant manager previously) to assess patients to move to inpatient halls to ease the ED boarding. 

I know I have missed some examples of the amazing things that Viet has done in a very short timeframe.  Quantifying his impact on staff is anecdotal as we have not had an engagement survey, but hardly a day goes by that someone does not remark to me about how wonderful Viet is. He upholds the standards of respect each and every day and works to create the best possible environment for our staff and patients. His primary unit 5 west has gone 2 years without a CLABSI and well over a year without a CAUTI, this shows a high level of accountability and patient-centered excellence.  He is kind to his core, and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who did not agree.