Imagine it is the Spring of 2007, and the nursing staff of Overlook has begun it’s journey toward ANCC Magnet Recognition. So many of the Magnet elements were already alive and well at Overlook, and the next step was to form a hospital wide Nursing Shared Governance Council – one that would include clinical nurses from across the entire organization.  Inpatient, Outpatient, Specialty nurses. The leadership of this first  Shared Governance Council was to be incredibly important to the long-term success of Overlook’s Magnet Journey.  The leadership as well as membership of the Shared Governance Council must be nurses who were respected by their nursing colleagues, their physician peers, administration, and colleagues from the organization.  

Barbara Herrmann, along with other like-minded nurses who were invested in the Magnet journey, served as a key nurse leader to the Shared Governance Council.  No job in Shared Governance was ever too large–or too small–for Barbara to wrap her hands around.  Her inquisitiveness, commitment to strong communication, and involvement of the bedside nurse throughout the organization led her to practice and serve as a leader in a variety of roles.  She served as the penultimate clinical nurse expert for Overlook’s perioperative service, representing the nursing practice of our Main OR, Reeves Same Day Surgery, PreOp, and Post Op.  In her previous role as an educator, she supported best in class educational, onboarding, and preceptor training and education.  As a member of the Shared Governance Council, she was always comfortable ‘pushing the envelope’ to ask challenging questions and to advance the role of the professional nurse.  

She actively supported ALL the initiatives of our Shared Governance Council – Unit Based Councils, Certification Review, BSN, and academic progression, on-site college fairs…  The list goes on and on.   But my favorite role Barbara played for many years was supporting the monthly “CHAT with MARYPAT” meetings.  CHAT stood for “Communication Happens with Accountability and Transparency.”  Barbara would encourage nursing staff to attend, send out flyers, bring snacks and goodies, and join MaryPat monthly at informal drop in sessions where nurses could simply stop in to hear news about nursing, to ask specific questions that individual nursing staff might have, to hear challenges or recommendation that individual nurses might have to improve patient care, support quality, and to enhance the work environment for our nursing staff. 
 
Barbara’s commitment to communication at all levels of the organization supported the very basic of all Magnet and Shared Governance principles.   Her commitment to Shared Governance and Overlook is second to none, and no one is more deserving of this recognition than Barbara Herrmann.