Maggie constantly drives not only her team to succeed but also herself. Within the past year, this nurse completed the fundamentals of chemotherapy certification, thus role modeling to the novice nurses throughout the inpatient setting the importance of this content and the certification being attainable. This candidate seeks out nurses who must complete their required chemotherapy administrations for certification to ensure this certification is achieved in a timely manner.  

This nurse’s leadership extends beyond the corridors of her unit. This nominee is a nursing resource for those caring for medical oncology inpatients, often fielding questions regarding goals of care, multidisciplinary communication, length of stay and inpatient chemotherapy regimens, regardless of what unit the medical oncology patient resides. This candidate truly listens when team members speak. It was identified that chemotherapy infusions were running longer than the scheduled 24-hour infusions. This nurse leader worked with her team to conduct a study to assess the correlation with the use of anti-siphon tubing. In addition, auditing pumps working with Agiliti and pharmacy to analyze other causes of the extended infusion times. 

This nurse leader is the Co-Chair of Nursing Performance Improvement Council. This is a title that she embodies; she tackles process improvement initiatives in areas of zero harm, patient satisfaction, and staff engagement, motivating our nurses to foster a culture of change. This nominee has co-authored abstracts that were accepted at national conferences and continually shares innovative ways to improve nursing processes, enhancing the profession. This candidate is a true leader, she is nurse, a parent, a soccer coach, a spouse, a student, a colleague, and a friend. This nurse’s compassion, coupled with the positive impact on quality under her leadership, is a testament to why she should receive the award. 

This nurse shares her vision of zero harm and motivates her staff to take action to spark a culture change into positive outcomes for our patients. This nominee challenged her team to hold each other accountable for patient falls. This nurse leader fostered an environment of inclusion, asking all staff to be on alert, spend more time in the halls and less time at the nurses’ station, increasing patient education, promptly answer call bells, and developing the unit-based task force for fall reduction that rounds in patient rooms ensuring all measures to reduce falls are in place. The news of her work spread and was shared on other units, led to over a month without any falls in the inpatient space. She shared this victory with her team and celebrated with Fanatic About Falls cupcakes, featuring the Phillie Phanatic. 

This nurse has recently completed practicum for graduate studies in which she is working with an ambulatory leader to gain better insight with care coordination in an alternative setting. This nominee identified a gap in communication for inpatient chemotherapy admissions and created a shared document to track scheduled chemotherapy admissions with hospitalists, patient flow and nursing supervisors, to ensure admission orders are placed, beds are reserved, and appropriate staffing attained.

Note: This is Maggie's 2nd DAISY Award!