This nurse leader demonstrates integrity by saying what he believes and following through on his commitments.  He is straightforward and forthright, expressing himself with clarity, so that others always understand what is being communicated.  He is a model for ethical behavior by being consistent, open, and clear with ethical standards and expectations.  He encourages the team to express concerns about questionable practices, and takes the time to review any ethical concerns with the team by providing open, candid feedback.  Examples of these processes may include facilitating work conditions that promote optimum safe patient care, creating open communications with staff to support quality care standards, and promoting positive relationships with staff that promote work engagement.  He demonstrates how he is a proud member of the Duke University Health System and live its values, and explicitly articulates to the team why he is proud and why these things are important.  Examples of integrity are shown not just in how he interacts with staff but also how he treats patients and family members.  He shows concern and respect for his team, expresses appreciation and support, and is genuinely concerned for our welfare.

During staff evaluations, he works with staff to develop personal action plans for career advancement and mobility.  Beginning with the orientation process, at each interval (30-, 60- and 90-day evaluations), he pushes staff to think about how they can set and achieve goals.  He stresses why professional and personal growth are important.  He fosters a practice environment that emphasizes quality, safety, and professional accountability and growth.  Every year since he has been the manager, nurses on our unit have completed their professional certifications and become active members in professional nursing associations.  All staff are assigned to hospital and unit committees to promote shared governance.  He is a role model for specialty certification, maintaining both CRRN and CNML; and he encourages staff to advance on the Career Ladder.  Rewards staff with nominations for key awards.  Nominated five nurses for internal awards, with three winners; has submitted 10 Great 100 nominations, with three winners.  He informs nominees about the submissions, since being nominated for an award is a great honor.  He celebrates others’ success as if it were his own.  He recognizes staff accomplishments with parties and sweets, but those hardly compare to the hand-written thank you notes and congratulatory cards he sends.

The nurse created Dynamic Risk Indicator (DRI) Dashboard to visually track, analyze and display key performance metrics and data points, so that we on the unit can “see” our progress.  The DRI is customized for our department and hospital.  Behind the scenes, he collects data, downloads files, attachments, services and application programming interfaces (APIs), then displays all as tables, line charts, bar charts and gauges for ease of understanding.  Our Dashboard provides a central location for monitoring and analyzing performance. Currently, we are meeting and/or exceeding quality measures at the local and state levels, thanks to his outstanding leadership!

He uses a systematic, data-driven approach to lower length of stay (LOS) and improve care coordination.  He looks for ways to provide more efficient and cost-effective quality care, to ensure long-term success.  Reducing LOS improves financial, operational and clinical outcomes, by decreasing the costs related to inpatient status and by minimizing risk for hospital-acquired conditions.  Our Dashboard shows preliminary results within one business day, affording more time for validation and analysis.  And service line dashboards show multiple months of data simultaneously.

My Nurse Manager is also involved in our organization’s Partners in Practice Committee.  Through the committee, he celebrates the contributions of interdisciplinary colleagues, and promotes the importance of collaborative relationships throughout our hospital.  He assisted the committee with developing a publicity campaign, with flyers and an announcement on the hospital website.  As Co-Chair, he ensures that all people involved are participating, as they have committed to do.  He meets with his fellow Co-Chair to discuss preliminaries and to divide responsibilities.  He takes the initiative for assignments, then runs major items through the other Co-Chair.  He is instrumental in educating others on the purpose of the committee, planning an annual celebration, reserving the venue and setting up the day of the event.

He encourages people to know their own strengths and values, and to use them to advocate for themselves.  This causes one to be more engaged and have greater impact and happiness in their work.  This inspires and empowers employees to bring their full selves to work.  He is supportive of staff making choices and decisions, knowing and trusting that they are focused on best patient outcomes.  This autonomy encourages and supports their ability to succeed and grow.  He stays in touch with employees, so he can confirm they’re getting the recognition they deserve.  His open and two-way communication fosters trust and demonstrates his commitment to building successful relationships with staff.

We have patients on our unit who are from many cities in North Carolina and across the United States, and their length of stay can be anywhere from three days to five weeks.  This compassionate leader extends meal coverage to family members who are far from home and want to stay at the bedside with their loved one.  Even though every manager must maintain a budget, he provides the meal coverage as a courtesy to our patients’ families.  He visits every patient personally; and on our patient satisfaction surveys, it shows — he has 100 percent face-to-face interactions with all of our patients.

He validates and appreciates the worth of everyone.  His listening opens the doors to better conversation, a more positive exchange, and ultimately a better relationship and better patient outcomes.