Claudia Degani, BSH, RN, CCRN

Claudia is an incredible nurse leader and someone I look up to every day. Claudia just recently celebrated her 26th year with Children’s Hospital of Colorado. During that time, she has never received a DAISY Award, and the moment I realized this, I knew that I needed to write this nomination. Claudia is always right there in the trenches with her team, providing guidance in the chaos. I am lucky enough to say that I have worked with Claudia on and off over the last decade. She was my preceptor when I was a new grad in the PICU, and then our paths crossed again working in SPARC. Claudia has always been a nurse leader with or without a title. She has such a robust nursing background that you can pretty much ask her anything, and she will know the answer or where to find it.

Our team has experienced rapid growth of our surgical services, and on busy double ENT days, Claudia is right there without being asked in staffing pre-op, seconding, recovering patients, cleaning rooms, providing lunch breaks, and doing anything she can to support her team. There are some days that would not be possible to get through without her. She has helped to foster a culture of hard work, mutual trust, and respect in our departments. Despite being busy in her role as an ACM, she continues to make herself available to the team and is quick to jump into action when called for help. Claudia advocates for the team by looking at surgical cases several weeks in advance. She creates a weekly plan so that we are prepared for complex cases and admissions. We can work efficiently like a well-oiled machine because of the forethought and work that she does without fail every week. What she starts, she finishes and maintains. I am so incredibly thankful to work with her.