Roselyn “Roz” Sebastian has worked at Sinai Hospital for 23 years and has been the Nurse Manager of the Orthopedic Units since 2022.

Roz received the DAISY Nurse Leader Award in March of this year, at which time she was nominated by 11 different staff members on her unit, including frontline professional nurses, technicians, and administrative staff.

They described her as being motivating, strategic, compassionate, and supportive. Since receiving the DAISY Nurse Leader award, Roz has taken on the additional challenge of leading a third acute care unit, GIGU.

This is not only a testament to her ability to lead and manage people and processes, but also her willingness to absorb the responsibility for the well-being of another team and patient population. Roz seamlessly inserted herself into the unit culture, asked questions, sought their expertise and insight, and led with authenticity.

Roz also has a great sense of humor, a superpower of sorts. She has the uncanny ability to de-escalate, redirect, defuse, and lighten any space that she enters. The work that she does is difficult, and she continues to push through for the sake of her team and her patients.

Roz embraces and celebrates small wins and builds upon this momentum, encouraging her nurses to take ownership of their practice through incremental positive change. Roz pours her whole self into the work that she does, and she does it all in the name of providing evidence-based care and leading by example.

Roz is a “roll up your sleeves” kind of leader, one who will not ask you to do anything that she would not do herself. I personally had the privilege of watching Roz support her team through a Code Blue on one of her units, which happened to occur on a Saturday. She was supportive, empathetic, accountable, strong, and compassionate.

She was hyper-focused on the well-being of the patient, their family, and her team. Roz is acutely aware that the work that her team commits to, day in and day out, is difficult. She acknowledges the difficulty and keeps her teams focused on the mission of caring for our patients, families, and community.

Roz capitalizes on the fact that not everyone can do what her nurses do – she uses this to her advantage by inspiring her teams and evoking a tremendous sense of pride. Roz is a mentor to her charge nurses, providing them with the tools and resources that they need to practice at the top of their scope.

For those who are curious about formal nursing leadership, she provides opportunities, coaching, and guidance that position them for success when an opportunity arises. For example, when Roz assumed the responsibility of the third unit, GIGU, she was able to access her nurse leader “pipeline” and quickly onboarded one of her senior nurses into the role of Assistant Nurse Manager.

Another hallmark of Roz’s success is her ability to connect with her teams and bring them along for the ride. She solicits their feedback and insight through her unit-based professional governance council, which is led by her frontline professional nurses. She has strategically empowered them to use their voice to make evidence-based decisions that are implemented in a fun and playful way.

For example, Roz and her team recently launched “Mobility March” and “Ambulating April” to promote progressive mobility across her departments. When team members who were “caught in the act” of assisting their patients with sitting up, getting out of bed to the chair, and ambulating with assistance, they received a punch on their punch card. Once they had a certain number of punches, they were entered into a raffle to win a prize.

Roz is competitive – and this has certainly rubbed off on her team. To increase LEAF monitor compliance to prevent skin breakdown and promote best practice, Roz playfully started “LEAF Wars”, where she broke the day shift and night shift into competing teams.

Whoever has the highest LEAF compliance for the month of September will win a pizza party. It’s a win/win - a win for the patient and a win for the team.

Roz is a master at tapping various team members on the shoulder, providing them with just enough encouragement to help them share their opinions/thoughts and contribute in a meaningful way.

Most recently, Roz engaged several of her nurses to work on an evidence-based project to prevent deep venous thrombosis.

Using two of her units to pilot, Roz and a team of her nurses worked together to improve sequential compression device (SCD) availability and utilization through increased access to equipment (each room is now equipped with a dedicated SCD machine) and chart audits (ensuring the team is documenting utilization of the SCDs and promoting/sustaining best practice).

While remaining patient-focused and outcomes-driven, Roz also championed the frontline nurse professional ladder, reminding her nurses that this work would earn them points towards advancement on the ladder. Roz’s team members continue to be grateful for her leadership and support, day in and day out, and this directly impacts patient quality and experience.

The following are excerpts from her DAISY Nurse Leader of the Year nominations from her team:

• “She is going above and beyond to care for all of us.”
• “She is not just an amazing manager, but an amazing person, nurse, and co-worker."
• “She performs to the very best of her abilities and goes beyond the call of duty at all times for our patients, staff, and leaders.”
• “She is quiet yet strong."
• “I take great pride in working with her.”

There are countless examples of Roz’s exceptional leadership, mentorship, and dedication to the nursing profession.

We are so honored to have Roz on our team and will continue to learn from her shining example.