The most recent Credo Award and Five Pillar Leader Award winners were announced at this week’s Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly at Langford Auditorium.
Barbara Shultz, MSN, R.N., administrative director of Surgical Services at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, received the Five Pillar Leader Award, given for leadership in service, quality, employee engagement, growth and finance, and innovation.
Shultz’s nomination letter read, “She works tirelessly to ensure that the children receive the best care at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She does this by making herself available not only to the surgeons but also to the families of the patients. She is a true patient advocate; she works to ensure that all the proper members are at the table when important decisions are made. She even calls families personally to keep them apprised when beds are tight and when the surgery may have to be rescheduled. Barb leads by example, she does not ask anything of her staff that she is not willing to do. Barb is also a very humble leader. She does not bask in her successes; she goes on to the next task. She knows that we will not improve by resting on our past successes but by working toward quality and safe care for all of our patients.”
The Credo Award honors staff and faculty who exemplify the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Credo. The latest Credo Award winners are Blair Miller, Pharm.D., VUH clinical pharmacist; Dawn Martin, administrative assistant III, Department of Anesthesiology; and Vince Abler, care partner, 8S VUH.
Miller’s nomination read, “Blair always makes our patients her highest priority. In January, Blair was helping to coordinate the discharge of a medically complex homeless patient. After several conversations with the patient, Blair realized that he was not able to read the written instructions on medication bottles, but that he could remember things if they discussed them several times. To assure that the patient understood his medications at discharge, Blair began walking laps around the unit with the patient and ‘quizzing’ him on his medications. After several sessions, the patient was able to describe how and when to take his medications, and what they were used for. When the patient was ready for discharge, Blair went a step further and re-packaged all of his discharge medications so that they would fit into his bag so that they wouldn’t be lost or stolen when he arrived to his temporary living situation.”
Martin’s nomination read, “In her role, Dawn interacts with a wide variety of people, from department leaders to representatives from other Vanderbilt service areas to external vendors, and she treats every individual with the same degree of consideration, regardless their stature. Her obvious care for her co-workers and the others she interacts with on a daily basis not only wins their loyalty, but makes her more productive because they are all willing to assist with any project or problem she encounters. On a daily basis, I personally observe her devoting her entire effort and all available resources to excellent planning and to solving the problems that arise in the day-to-day operations of our department.”
Abler’s nomination read, “Vince has been here for less than 6 months, and he already has had more green cards written about him from patients from anyone else I’ve seen. Vince came in for a meeting one morning that was supposed to last from 7:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. He found out that we were down one care partner on 8 North and volunteered to work. He had scrubs sent up from the linen department and he worked the entire shift in his nice dress shoes. He was not only a huge help that day, but he did it with a smile, and when thanked responded “I’m just glad I was able to help.” It bears mentioning that Vince’s home department is 8 South, not 8 North, so for him to offer this was a great example of his dedication to helping others. I have met one-on-one with Vince on multiple occasions. His main remarks to me are, “What can I do to improve?” and “I just love interacting with the patients.”
