I met Lindsay one day as she was transferring a patient from Endo to the unit I was working on. There was a nurse who was looking to transfer to a day schedule and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to find out how this nurse liked Endo. I asked, and at that point she told me that she was actually the director. It had to have been almost 6 pm, and here she was working. I knew at that point she would be someone I wanted to work for, not because she was working, but because you would have never known she was the director.

Over the last 16 months, I've watched her sit down with a grieving son and talk about the father he had lost, I've watched her step in and prep, recover, start IV's, help with lunches, and man the charge nurse desk. I've seen her change hats so many times I'm not even sure if she knows how many she wears. Never with a complaint, and always with the thought of taking care of her staff, so that we can take care of our patients. Lindsay keeps an open door, and staff are always welcome to come sit and get whatever they need off their chest. I felt like I had been in that office a lot in those few weeks, and here I was coming in again. I closed the door and poured my little heart out. I spoke about my son and the trouble he was having. At one point, Lindsay looked at me and asked me if I felt safe at home. That was the only time anyone had ever asked me that. What an extremely difficult and powerful question to ask your employee. That question took an extreme amount of courage and guts to ask, whether she knows it or not.

Thank you for showing up every day ready to work alongside us if needed. Thank you for teaching us how to be better versions of the nurses we are, and thank you most of all for reminding us that we are important, that our families are important, and for never backing away from hard questions, hard conversations.