Your name, title and department. How long have you worked here?
MaJomela ‘Joie’ Nagal, MBA, BSN, RN, CPN, Education Coordinator on 10 WT Neurology/Neurosurgery/Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. I have worked at Texas Children’s Hospital for 11 years.
Tell us how you found out you won a super star award.
I thought I was meeting with Sheranda Fesler, our assistant director of Clinical Practice, Nursing to discuss my FY 2019 goals. She came to meet with me but asked me to go with her to attend to a more urgent matter in a haste so I knew it had to be important. I was surprised to see my colleagues, 10 WT Leadership Team, Emily Weber, Jennifer Sanders and Jackie Ward in the conference room. Sheranda announced that I won Super Star Award. I still could not believe it, I kept looking around the room and I thought for a second that I recognized my husband in the corner. That was nice of Sheranda to invite my husband to come over and be part of my celebration. I had no idea how he was invited but Sheranda explained how she orchestrated the event. I could not explain the overwhelming joy and the mixed emotions but I knew in my heart that I was overjoyed.
What does it mean to be recognized for the hard work you do? How has the organization helped you achieve your personal and professional goals?
I am so honored to be recognized and so grateful to have received this award. It gives me a great sense of confidence to know that my hard work is being recognized. It also is comforting to know that my colleagues appreciate my efforts. It is an honor and a privilege to work here at Texas Children’s Hospital and be surrounded with incredible people to work with. Texas Children’s has a lot of wonderful opportunities to offer and these kept me motivated and continued to inspire me to learn more, improve and grow in my nursing profession. My journey here at Texas Children’s started when I was hired as a staff nurse. Texas Children’s has provided an environment in which front line staff like myself was able to engage and join the unit based and house-wide committees which supported nursing practice and fostered participatory decision making, professional accountability and career growth. I have taken on various expanded roles in the unit level and house wide. After fulfilling several unit-based expanded roles and becoming involved with various projects, I began to see the need and the value as an informal leader. Along the way, I have met amazing people and inspirational leaders who were instrumental in achieving my personal and professional goals. I felt that I could best contribute to advancing the growing and evolving nursing profession through nursing education.
What do you think makes someone at Texas Children’s a super star?
A Texas Children’s Super Star must uphold and exhibit a passion for Texas Children’s mission, must provide quality and excellent clinical patient care, a role model in exhibiting integrity and ethical behavior, and value others by showing respect, compassion and empathy. A super star is someone who is able to take action and initiative to solve problems, someone who is not only willing to embrace change but be the change agent.
What is your motivation for going above and beyond every day at work?
My biggest motivation for going above and beyond is knowing that I work with an amazing team whom I really care about and inspire me to do better each day. It gives me sense of great satisfaction knowing that staff are empowered, equipped with knowledge and training to safely care for the patients and ultimately provide quality and excellent nursing care. It also gives me the sense of fulfillment to witness the journey of a novice nurse, to be there to nurture them on their professional development and until they become experts.
What is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s?
The best thing about working at Texas Children’s is working alongside extraordinary people that I share the same passion serving pediatric population. Knowing that I am part of an organization that is family centered care, full of opportunities, supports nursing practice, advancing in technology and serves not only the children but as well as women in the global community and more importantly leading in patient care, education and research.
What does it mean to you that everyone at Texas Children’s is considered a leader? What is your leadership definition?
I believed that commitment to excellence starts with the leader, so know in your heart that where you are is where you were placed to serve and share your skills and talents. A leader is able to develop others by highlighting their strengths, minimizes their weaknesses and builds upon that. A leader is someone who is an effective communicator, can connect with staff, can foster a positive work culture environment, able to incorporate core measures in daily practice. Someone who is a positive influencer, can lead by example, is reliable and trustworthy.
Anything else you want to share?
I would like to thank my fellow Educator, Heather Morand-Reid who nominated me and to the 10 WT staff and the Leadership Team whom she collaborated with to make this possible. Thank you team!