This amazing nurse is an excellent example of how integrity can positively impact patient care. Her integrity shines through in the way that she interacts with her team. This nurse is the embodiment of the Duke values and role models these behaviors for her team. She works at night and supports her team in continuous quality improvement and debriefing after unexpected events. This nurse is a role model for the way that honest and timely debriefing can positively impact safety and improve processes for all. It can be difficult to self-identify an error, however showing this vulnerability in a way that keeps the focus on our commitment to zero harm is an example of the power that integrity has when it becomes a core value.

She maintains two unit specific certifications (inpatient obstetrics and electronic fetal monitoring), she is an active member of her professional organization (AWHONN) and has utilized her participation in the organization to create a fetal monitoring education program for the unit by becoming an EFM instructor and motivating her team members to also become instructors. This nurse is currently enrolled in an MSN program and maintains a CNIII status — while currently pursuing her CNIV. She is a member of the special care multidisciplinary team, unit residence team, chair of the L&D policy committee, an Empower (baby friendly) trainer and is always the first to volunteer for any new initiatives. This nurse is the embodiment of the excellence that Duke needs to move forward in this fast-paced and ever-changing health care environment.

This nurse has personally participated in the policy development and staff education and training related to COVID care delivery for the pregnant population. The PPE training, changes in operative care, and nurses adopting COVID swabbing for every admitted patient were all areas where this nurse participated in looking at the evidence and developing protocols and training the staff to meet the needs of our population. At the same time, the non-COVID care needs for our patient population were ongoing. This innovative nurse partnered with the unit education council to trial ways to document shoulder dystocia to aid in decision-making related to this event. Through this work, a method was developed that allows for accurate documentation and ease of use to support the focus on the patient during this safety event.

Through collaboration with the Office of Institutional Equity and content experts within the Duke Obstetric Department, this nurse has created a team that developed a birth equity and maternal mortality program that has recruited the first cohort to begin this important work in November 2020. The program will last for one year and will follow the group through the offered sessions. The impact of implicit bias, structural racism, and the bystander effect are all addressed through this program. This nurse has recognized that care processes were developed to address maternal mortality, however standard staff training did not exist. This program will expand through time to include all of the staff in the service line, with the goal to change the culture through evidenced-based education and training.

This caring nurse took the initiative to create a team focused on resilience and, therefore, increasing unit retention and work culture. This team looks at common unit frustrations and implements solutions. This team coordinated a clean-up of the staff locker room, implementing shoe holders for lockers, organization, and involving Environmental Services in a deep clean that was transformative. She also used her creativity to create a resilience board with fabric bags decorated with the names of each team member that are filled with treats notes and all kinds of support by leadership and team members. There also is an employee profile that highlights the person and the nurse. Taking care of our spaces, being kind and proud of those that we work with shows support in a way that reflects Swanson’s Theory of Caring.

This excellent nominee and skilled nurse has transformed the way that we care for our patients and for each other by listening to her peers and implementing evidenced-based changes that provide excellence, innovation, integrity, collaboration and caring in a way that highlights the best in each of us and the Duke organization as a whole.