September 2025
Shannon
Curry
,
MSN, RN
Maternity Care Unit
Atrium Health University City
Charlotte
,
NC
United States
I have such sincere gratitude for my Service Line Educator, Shannon (Shae) Curry. She supports the Maternity Care Unit and NICU at Atrium Health University City. Shae joined my team in January of 2024, and this is her first full-time role as a Nurse Educator after she graduated with her MSN in December of 2023. While she is coming up short of her one-year anniversary on my team, she has completely exceeded my expectations and has displayed phenomenal leadership within our department and throughout the hospital.
Shae brought emergency department (ED) and high-risk labor and delivery (L&D) bedside nursing skills to our team, and she uses them to be an excellent educator of maternity and medical information to our large team of approximately 140 individuals. our large team of approximately 140 individuals. The premise of this nomination is to highlight how Shae has leveraged her ED & L&D nursing skill set to advance our Maternity Department education and strengthen our working relationships with the respective departments at University City.
At the beginning of Shae’s orientation, she learned who her network of Service Line Educators and Clinical Nurse Specialists was at University City. She quickly developed great working relationships with all of them. Over time, she has worked with them on several occasions to improve processes, knowledge, and mock events within the Maternity Department. Maternity is commonly viewed as “its own world” in a hospital setting – creating a silo effect. Since Shae has been in her Service Line Educator position, I truly feel I have watched that silo disappear, and as a team, we have strengthened our relationships with all our respective departments at University City. Please review the examples listed below that display Shae’s collaborative efforts:
1. Maternal Morbidity & Mortality: There is great emphasis on the current US maternal morbidity and mortality rates. Hospitals are making great efforts to improve these rates across the country. We began an initiative of passing out “I Gave Birth” bracelets to our patients when they are discharged. This bracelet is to be worn so healthcare providers can visualize it and be reminded of the risk factors postpartum patients have that differ greatly from those of a routine medical patient. Shae collaborated with the service line educator in the University City ED to ensure the ED team was informed of this initiative. Additionally, this partnership led the ED to display Maternal Early Warning Signs on department doors. The goal of this signage was to raise awareness among patients, family members, and staff when these symptoms are present in a pregnant or postpartum patient.
2. Laboratory & Blood Bank Communication: The maternity was experiencing an increase in the delay of receiving blood products from the blood bank. After many meetings that Shae and I had with the University City lab, blood bank/transfusion leadership, educators, and the University City clinical nurse specialist, Shae identified a communication error as the root of the problem. It was identified that our teammates were confusing the orders of STAT blood, rapid infusion, and mass transfusion protocol. Because our teammates were confusing the concepts of these 3 very different processes, the blood bank was receiving mixed messaging signals. Not only did Shae role out phenomenal education to teach our teammates the key differences, but the partnership that she created with this work led her to get an invitation to observe a session of drills in the lab/blood bank. She was able to witness the processing of STAT blood versus a mass transfusion protocol. She was able to use this observation to drive her education with the staff, emphasizing what she witnessed in her drill and that they met all their time goals for preparation.
3. Team Focused CPR: In 2024, University City teammates attended required team-focused CPR training. This training was conducted by all the educators and clinical nurse specialists. Being that there are so many teammates at University City, there were teammates who experienced barriers to attending a session. When all the in-person sessions were complete, Shae had a desire to create a video that could be utilized for these individuals, but also for continuing education and review. The Center for Life Support advised the educators that there have been many others who have tried to create a video, but there were errors and opportunities found in the prior submissions. Shae was bound and determined that our phenomenal educator team at University City could make this happen – and they did! Shae worked very hard to edit and submit the video. The video has been utilized for education and review – this truly couldn’t have been done without the participation of all the educators.
4. Code Blue: Maternity has not routinely responded to emergent events paged overhead that occur on other inpatient medical units. When Shae was very early in her role and just getting to know her respective colleagues, she began responding to the Code Blue alerts on their units. I felt this display of teamwork was phenomenal. I also feel that Shae displaying this act of teamwork is contagious amongst all our teammates within the Maternity department, and within the hospital. Just last week, there was a Rapid Response that was paged overhead on our Maternity unit. While all appropriate individuals were there per University City policy, there were also service line educators and clinical nurse specialists who responded to provide support.
5. Mock Code Blue: Historically, the Maternity unit did not participate in surprise “Mock Code Blue” drills. This is yet another example of how Shae’s partnerships and participation in medical education events are strengthening the skills of our Maternity department staff. The educators have worked together to plan for rotating “Mock Code Blue” drills on all hospital units – although the location of the drills is rotating, all the educators are present to support each other in facilitating the drill. Shae recently participated in the “Mock Code Blue” drill in the ICU, and we have this drill coming soon to our department. I am so excited that this will occur in the Maternity department. Thankfully, this is not something that we see in our adult patients. Practicing these skills for the event of an emergency is so important.
6. Nursing Professional Development Council: Shae serves on the Atrium Health University City Nursing Professional Development Council. To summarize the accomplishments at University City in 2024, Shae is going to create a video, inclusive of all departments. She has worked to create a flyer to welcome all University City teammates to share with her any good photos or videos that can be shared in the video. I am looking forward to seeing her “feel good” vision come to life!
7. Atrium Health Lake Norman: Atrium Health University City is very excited to be growing in 2025 with the opening of a sister facility. I recently learned that assistance was needed to develop an education plan for future teammates who will be working at Atrium Health Lake Norman. I nominated Shae to assist with this work, and she agreed to volunteer if help is needed. In my previous experience in Maternity units, an educator in Maternity would not be able to participate in the planning phase of hospital-wide education due to the silo effect that I mentioned earlier in this nomination. However, Shae’s valuable ED & L&D skillset, in combination with her strong collaborative efforts, makes her a stellar asset to any team.
In addition to all the great work Shae is doing interdepartmentally, she is also doing an excellent job on our women’s service line-specific education for the department. With her leadership, we have improved several quality metrics utilizing the principle of positive reinforcement and recognition. The first example that comes to mind is our performance in utilizing our maternal hypertension protocol. At the closing of 2023, our performance was not meeting the goal at 82.47%. In quarter 4 of 2023 alone, we were struggling at 72.22%. When Shae began with our team in January of this year, this was one of the major focus areas that I wanted to work on with Shae. Shae began by reviewing our protocols with the RN staff. Next, she recognized each RN who completed the protocol successfully. At the month's end, all RNs she recognized were put into a “virtual drawing”, which was a video of a wheel with all appropriate teammates’ names. In the video, you can watch the wheel stop and pick a winner. This positive recognition was contagious and very fun for the department. The teammates love watching the video that Shae uploads to the department communication page. With this intervention, our YTD performance in 2024 is currently 93.51%, which is an improvement of 11.04%.
Shae has also begun to display her collaborative efforts within the work of the women’s service line. She participates in teaching the OB Core curriculum for all the new grads and RNs who are beginning an RN role in a Maternity unit that does not have any Maternity experience. Additionally, she is the co-chair of the Perinatal Education Collaborative, where she is a leader among all the women’s service line educators.
I could continue to write on and on, sharing the fabulous addition that Shae has been to not only our Maternity team, but also the University City team. Her constant willingness to go above and beyond has blown me away. In addition to her work ethic in her educator role, I have also seen firsthand how fabulous of a bedside nurse she is. When the unit is in need, she is quick to jump in where needed. Whether that be seeing triage patients, assisting at deliveries by catching the baby, or being the primary nurse for a delivering patient. She is always the first to share that remaining close to the bedside is what makes her an impactful educator.
Again, I share my deepest gratitude, appreciation, and thanks to Shae for being my “right hand” when I am brainstorming for departmental process improvement. I truly couldn’t do it all without her. I still can recall the day when I called Shae to perform a telephone screen after I received her job application. She asked me “do you think this is a job I can be successful in as a first-time educator?” – I want Shae to know that she is knocking it out of the park and a true DAISY Nurse Leader.
Shae brought emergency department (ED) and high-risk labor and delivery (L&D) bedside nursing skills to our team, and she uses them to be an excellent educator of maternity and medical information to our large team of approximately 140 individuals. our large team of approximately 140 individuals. The premise of this nomination is to highlight how Shae has leveraged her ED & L&D nursing skill set to advance our Maternity Department education and strengthen our working relationships with the respective departments at University City.
At the beginning of Shae’s orientation, she learned who her network of Service Line Educators and Clinical Nurse Specialists was at University City. She quickly developed great working relationships with all of them. Over time, she has worked with them on several occasions to improve processes, knowledge, and mock events within the Maternity Department. Maternity is commonly viewed as “its own world” in a hospital setting – creating a silo effect. Since Shae has been in her Service Line Educator position, I truly feel I have watched that silo disappear, and as a team, we have strengthened our relationships with all our respective departments at University City. Please review the examples listed below that display Shae’s collaborative efforts:
1. Maternal Morbidity & Mortality: There is great emphasis on the current US maternal morbidity and mortality rates. Hospitals are making great efforts to improve these rates across the country. We began an initiative of passing out “I Gave Birth” bracelets to our patients when they are discharged. This bracelet is to be worn so healthcare providers can visualize it and be reminded of the risk factors postpartum patients have that differ greatly from those of a routine medical patient. Shae collaborated with the service line educator in the University City ED to ensure the ED team was informed of this initiative. Additionally, this partnership led the ED to display Maternal Early Warning Signs on department doors. The goal of this signage was to raise awareness among patients, family members, and staff when these symptoms are present in a pregnant or postpartum patient.
2. Laboratory & Blood Bank Communication: The maternity was experiencing an increase in the delay of receiving blood products from the blood bank. After many meetings that Shae and I had with the University City lab, blood bank/transfusion leadership, educators, and the University City clinical nurse specialist, Shae identified a communication error as the root of the problem. It was identified that our teammates were confusing the orders of STAT blood, rapid infusion, and mass transfusion protocol. Because our teammates were confusing the concepts of these 3 very different processes, the blood bank was receiving mixed messaging signals. Not only did Shae role out phenomenal education to teach our teammates the key differences, but the partnership that she created with this work led her to get an invitation to observe a session of drills in the lab/blood bank. She was able to witness the processing of STAT blood versus a mass transfusion protocol. She was able to use this observation to drive her education with the staff, emphasizing what she witnessed in her drill and that they met all their time goals for preparation.
3. Team Focused CPR: In 2024, University City teammates attended required team-focused CPR training. This training was conducted by all the educators and clinical nurse specialists. Being that there are so many teammates at University City, there were teammates who experienced barriers to attending a session. When all the in-person sessions were complete, Shae had a desire to create a video that could be utilized for these individuals, but also for continuing education and review. The Center for Life Support advised the educators that there have been many others who have tried to create a video, but there were errors and opportunities found in the prior submissions. Shae was bound and determined that our phenomenal educator team at University City could make this happen – and they did! Shae worked very hard to edit and submit the video. The video has been utilized for education and review – this truly couldn’t have been done without the participation of all the educators.
4. Code Blue: Maternity has not routinely responded to emergent events paged overhead that occur on other inpatient medical units. When Shae was very early in her role and just getting to know her respective colleagues, she began responding to the Code Blue alerts on their units. I felt this display of teamwork was phenomenal. I also feel that Shae displaying this act of teamwork is contagious amongst all our teammates within the Maternity department, and within the hospital. Just last week, there was a Rapid Response that was paged overhead on our Maternity unit. While all appropriate individuals were there per University City policy, there were also service line educators and clinical nurse specialists who responded to provide support.
5. Mock Code Blue: Historically, the Maternity unit did not participate in surprise “Mock Code Blue” drills. This is yet another example of how Shae’s partnerships and participation in medical education events are strengthening the skills of our Maternity department staff. The educators have worked together to plan for rotating “Mock Code Blue” drills on all hospital units – although the location of the drills is rotating, all the educators are present to support each other in facilitating the drill. Shae recently participated in the “Mock Code Blue” drill in the ICU, and we have this drill coming soon to our department. I am so excited that this will occur in the Maternity department. Thankfully, this is not something that we see in our adult patients. Practicing these skills for the event of an emergency is so important.
6. Nursing Professional Development Council: Shae serves on the Atrium Health University City Nursing Professional Development Council. To summarize the accomplishments at University City in 2024, Shae is going to create a video, inclusive of all departments. She has worked to create a flyer to welcome all University City teammates to share with her any good photos or videos that can be shared in the video. I am looking forward to seeing her “feel good” vision come to life!
7. Atrium Health Lake Norman: Atrium Health University City is very excited to be growing in 2025 with the opening of a sister facility. I recently learned that assistance was needed to develop an education plan for future teammates who will be working at Atrium Health Lake Norman. I nominated Shae to assist with this work, and she agreed to volunteer if help is needed. In my previous experience in Maternity units, an educator in Maternity would not be able to participate in the planning phase of hospital-wide education due to the silo effect that I mentioned earlier in this nomination. However, Shae’s valuable ED & L&D skillset, in combination with her strong collaborative efforts, makes her a stellar asset to any team.
In addition to all the great work Shae is doing interdepartmentally, she is also doing an excellent job on our women’s service line-specific education for the department. With her leadership, we have improved several quality metrics utilizing the principle of positive reinforcement and recognition. The first example that comes to mind is our performance in utilizing our maternal hypertension protocol. At the closing of 2023, our performance was not meeting the goal at 82.47%. In quarter 4 of 2023 alone, we were struggling at 72.22%. When Shae began with our team in January of this year, this was one of the major focus areas that I wanted to work on with Shae. Shae began by reviewing our protocols with the RN staff. Next, she recognized each RN who completed the protocol successfully. At the month's end, all RNs she recognized were put into a “virtual drawing”, which was a video of a wheel with all appropriate teammates’ names. In the video, you can watch the wheel stop and pick a winner. This positive recognition was contagious and very fun for the department. The teammates love watching the video that Shae uploads to the department communication page. With this intervention, our YTD performance in 2024 is currently 93.51%, which is an improvement of 11.04%.
Shae has also begun to display her collaborative efforts within the work of the women’s service line. She participates in teaching the OB Core curriculum for all the new grads and RNs who are beginning an RN role in a Maternity unit that does not have any Maternity experience. Additionally, she is the co-chair of the Perinatal Education Collaborative, where she is a leader among all the women’s service line educators.
I could continue to write on and on, sharing the fabulous addition that Shae has been to not only our Maternity team, but also the University City team. Her constant willingness to go above and beyond has blown me away. In addition to her work ethic in her educator role, I have also seen firsthand how fabulous of a bedside nurse she is. When the unit is in need, she is quick to jump in where needed. Whether that be seeing triage patients, assisting at deliveries by catching the baby, or being the primary nurse for a delivering patient. She is always the first to share that remaining close to the bedside is what makes her an impactful educator.
Again, I share my deepest gratitude, appreciation, and thanks to Shae for being my “right hand” when I am brainstorming for departmental process improvement. I truly couldn’t do it all without her. I still can recall the day when I called Shae to perform a telephone screen after I received her job application. She asked me “do you think this is a job I can be successful in as a first-time educator?” – I want Shae to know that she is knocking it out of the park and a true DAISY Nurse Leader.