As a role model, Stacey exemplifies servitude and a "leaders eat last" mentality. She always puts her nurses before herself making sure that she is readily available to be a listening ear or a helping hand, whichever the situation requires. Recently, a level one trauma arrived to the unit actively bleeding and on the verge of coding. Stacey never lets her team go down without a fight. When the patient arrived to the unit, she was out of her office and at the bedside assisting with placing lines, hanging blood and drips, and making sure the lines of communication were open and clear. In another situation, a staff member wanting to develop her career met with Stacey one on one to gather advice and suggestions about how she could begin a career path leading to leadership. She made sure to meet with the nurse on her time (she is a night shift employee) and gave her great hospital resources for looking at different leadership paths: clinical, safety, quality, etc. In addition, she began giving the nurse projects to start working on and including her in committee meetings. That nurse is now a manager in Quality.
Stacey has a true passion for our patient population and serves the community through her work with the homeless and underserved populations of the metroplex. She works tirelessly to ensure that every person receives excellent care. Her aspirations include creating a "PIC" (post ICU care) clinic so that those who experience long term effects from stays in the ICU have targeted and specialized long term care. Being able to have this service out in the community will truly impact and improve the health of the metroplex. Recently, she supported her staff members in a drive to provide holiday care packages for a charity serving individuals experiencing homelessness. Through this initiative, the department was able to provide 60 boxes filled with personal hygiene products and warm clothes. Stacey is fair and consistent with decisions. She has led the SICU/PCU Scheduling Committee since its inception and ensured that decisions are fair and equitable for all staff members. She is compassionate and reasonable, flexible and understanding. She is always looking out for what is best for our staff. She maintains open lines of communication and transparency so that the staff always feel comfortable approaching her with questions.
Throughout her career, Stacey has looked for ways to have the most meaningful impact on her patients and team. Nurses who report to her say that she makes sure every person is taken care of before she takes care of herself and that she will sacrifice whatever necessary for a patient or teammate. As she progressed in her career she became an RN III: a bedside nurse who also has a specialty focus. During this time she developed the role of the Family Support Specialist. In this role, she had the difficult task of ensuring that the secondary client, the family, was cared for as well. She provided a shoulder to cry on when times were rough and was direct and honest with her communication to the family. This role is one of the most difficult positions in the unit. Daily she is giving away her energy and showing families how important they are to the care of the patient. Many times this role required her to plan multidisciplinary family meetings to ensure that the patient's wishes are met and their family is at peace with care decisions that are being made. Even though she is no longer in this role, her legacy lives on as others have taken up the responsibility of the Family Support Specialist.
As a leader, we are required to be resilient. We are required to look for the positives. We are required to uphold the values of our organizations and the nursing profession. Stacey is nothing if not resilient. When she was not promoted, she worked harder to improve the practice of nursing in her home unit. When she saw unsafe actions, she stopped the line to ensure that patients remain free from harm. When she was faced with difficult times of tight staffing and frustrated nurses, she worked tirelessly to be the voice of her team. She is a patient advocate, but more so, as a leader, she is a nurse advocate. She is able to listen to her team and find world-class solutions to real-world problems. Stacey has presented ICU Liberation and the significant impact on Parkland nursing at the 2018 American Nurse Credentialing Center Pathway to Excellence conference and will be presenting again this year at the annual conference in Orlando.
In 2015 she became involved with the ICU Liberation Collaborative, which was a nationwide initiative to decrease delirium, length of stay, and poor outcomes related to stays in the critical care setting. Through her unrelenting work, passion, and drive to improve care in the surgical ICU population, she has integrated the standards of ICU liberation into the everyday life of the ICU. Through her hands-on work and through inspiring her team, the surgical ICU has decreased the length of stay by over a day. This work has been highlighted in the Dallas Morning News and KERA. Stacey holds offices in the Nursing Practice Council and the Nursing Leadership Council. She completed the Clinical Safety and Effectiveness training through UT Southwestern, and the Texas Christian University Evidence Based Practice Fellowship. In both programs she created projects that improved the quality and safety of care delivered in the SICU. Stacey has recently graduated with her MSN from Baylor University as well.