Celebrating Our Extraordinary Nursing Staff During Nurse’s Week 2014

Each year, GBMC celebrates National Nurse’s Week to recognize the outstanding efforts nurses put forth on behalf of their patients. I’ve been at GBMC for almost four years and I have learned how talented and hard working our nurses are. With the introduction of Lean Daily Management, I’ve had the opportunity to meet many more of them and witness first hand their true dedication to our patients and our vision.

Our nursing staff is a phenomenal group – well-trained, caring and resilient. In fact, the resiliency of our nursing staff never ceases to amaze me. Through major snowstorms and torrential downpours, our nurses are there for our patients, whether they have to sleep on cots in the hospital so that they don’t miss a shift, or come in early to make sure shifts are covered.

Our nurses and nursing support technicians are the face of GBMC. They spend the most time with our patients and, in partnership with our physicians, generate the best health outcomes possible. Their untiring work this past year in improving patient safety and redesigning systems to better deliver care has been remarkable.

I’ve talked about some of our excellent nurses in this blog over the past year, highlighting examples of the hard work they have put forth to achieve our four aims including:

• The move toward standard work successfully implemented on Unit 38 by Kim Vohrer and director Justine Kellar, who led their team to dramatic improvements in the reliable use of falls prevention devices for patients at high risk
• Kathy Bull and her team on Unit 35 for implementing the standard work of calling the Emergency Department within 15 minutes of the patient being ready to move to “pull” the patient to their Unit. This new design has had excellent results in reducing the time that an admitted patient waits in the ED
• Charlene Mahoney, the Nurse Manager of the GOR PACU and her team who reached 100% compliance after just two weeks when they decided to measure and enforce the daily completion of the Post Anesthesia Evaluation Note before the patient could leave the PACU as one of their LDM metrics 
• How care managers like Vergie O’Garro in our patient-centered medical homes are effectively helping patients manage chronic health conditions 
• How Kate Devan and her team in the Sherwood Surgical Center are working hard to improve the aim of least waste by moving toward having all cases start on time at 7:30 a.m.
• How our nurses have been working diligently to reduce the rates of pressure ulcers to zero
• The work of Linda Kelly, clinical program manager for SAFE, who was our 2013 Compassionate Caregiver
• Cate O’Connor-Devlin and CJ Marbley, who volunteered their time to get the Playfit program up and running with the kids at West Towson Elementary School to combat childhood obesity

These are just a few examples of how our nursing staff has been getting in action to improve their units and departments as well as the community at large, for the benefit of our patients and all those who come to GBMC for the best care.

GBMC Introduces the Daisy Award for Nursing

Erica Wilkerson

Lindsey Turnbaugh

GBMC has become a proud DAISY Award partner, honoring one nurse every other month with a special recognition. The DAISY Award is an international program that celebrates the extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care given by nurses every day. The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) at the age of 33. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) During Pat’s eight week hospitalization, his family was awestruck by the care and compassion his nurses provided not only to Pat but to everyone in his family.

Nok Ganotong Tongprom

We presented GBMC’s first DAISY award back in November to Erica Wilkerson, RN, the second award to Nok Ganotong Tongprom, RN, in February and most recently, we presented Lindsey Turnbaugh, RN, with the special award in May. All three of these extraordinary nurses showed deep compassion for their patients and embodied our vision – “To every patient, every time, we will provide the care that we would want for our own loved ones."

Thank you to GBMC’s entire nursing staff for everything you do, day in and day out, to help patients in need!