Ms. Patterson demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to her unit (5A)and the team as well as to the junior managers across the healthcare system. Ms. Patterson creates an environment where attributes of trust, compassion, mutual respect, continued professional development and ethical behavior are modeled and supported. As the Senior Nurse Manager in med/surg, she is known as the “go-to” person for most things in med/surg. She is the kind of person who will take time out of her busy day to provide an ear or offer wisdom on how to complete a task or navigate a process. She makes it a point to reach out to fellow nurse managers to ask them how they are doing and ask if there is anything she can help them with. One of her peers shared “Marisa is consistently open and willing to listen and assist the team if needed, very respectful of the opinion, time, and ideas the team shares.” She is caring, resourceful, and genuinely happy to offer service no matter the task. Always a servant leader, her approachability draws novice nurse managers to her and she has mastered the art of making each person she interacts with feel as if they are the only matter of importance in that moment. Ms. Patterson makes herself accessible, available, and responsive to the needs of her team. 

As the primary low-intensity unit COVID Unit Manager, Ms. Patterson spent numerous hours prepping unit 5A to be the low-intensity unit for COVID patients. This required her to not only establish processes but also share those processes and expertise as the organization found itself in the position to need to expand COVID operations. Moreover, as we entered into our third year of the pandemic, unit 5A continued to lead the way in establishing what a “normal” decentralized COVID operation would look like. She led her team through this transition and reached back and led other med/surg units to do the same. Ms. Patterson encourages problem-solving and critical thinking. An example of this occurred when staff brought forward the concern about scanning medications in a decentralized COVID positive patient room. Out of fear of cross-contamination, staff were not able to take the bar code scanner and computer to the bedside to scan and administer medications so a process was needed that ensured compliance with scanning medication while protecting limited resources and maintaining safety for the patients. Ms. Patterson worked closely with patient safety and infection prevention and frontline staff to develop a process to continue to scan medications without risking cross-contamination of computer equipment with non-COVID patients. The new scanning process for COVID-positive patients was approved by patient safety and infection prevention and has been adopted across the organization without any incidence of scanning errors noted to date. 

Ms. Patterson is a respectful persistent advocate for her team. She never hesitates to communicate the needs of her team to leadership. As the pandemic continued and the surges became cyclic, the needs of the team were constantly evolving. Ms. Patterson remained flexible and attuned to the challenges of staff and acted advantageously to procure the resources so that her team could continue their focus on providing care for COVID patients. As the organization began to decentralize COVID operations it became evident that units with a large COVID patient census would need additional resources to account for the additional burden of donning and doffing time and other duties, like meal delivery to the bedside, that were no longer being performed as before. Ms. Patterson was able to broker a relationship with the health aides and they voluntarily agreed to take on the task of meal tray delivery and restocking of PPE. This strategic partnership kept nursing staff focused on interventions that only nurses could perform. She is a skillful communicator and garnered buy-in from her team at every turn.  Although many staff were not excited about the opportunity to be the designated COVID unit, Ms. Patterson was able to frame that conversation and mold it into something positive and a reflection of the trust and confidence the organization had in her and her team to navigate this unprecedented time. During the past year, Ms. Patterson rose to the occasion again when the med/surg team was faced with losing three senior managers. The time had come for Ms. Patterson to assert herself as the senior manager for med/surg and she did so valiantly. Marisa’s leadership has contributed to ensuring we have an open dialogue among the new team members and that every voice is heard. She created the weekly Nurse Manager meeting to address individual/group challenges and share knowledge. One of her peers stated it best “…Marisa has created a Nurse Manager environment that is respectful, open to constructive dialogue, and supportive. As the more experienced Nurse Manager on the team, she is guiding us to build a team rooted in togetherness. Through her leadership, we have successfully built a Nurse Manager team that has a common mission and goal for our individual units.” 
Through many challenges over the last year, Marisa has made a difference for our med/surg team, her unit 5A, and our organization. She has exemplified the mission of the healthcare system and has positively impacted those around her by making the team feel valued for their achievements, abilities, and contributions. Her skills, knowledge, willingness to help others, and dedication to our Veterans make her an excellent Nurse Leader.