May 18, 2021

It’s hard to contain the celebration of nursing to just one week at Texas Children’s – every day there are inspirational stories that demonstrate how our nurses go above and beyond for the patients and families in our care, ensuring the best possible experience and outcomes.

Still, Texas Children’s Nursing Retention Council planned a series of events this month for National Nurses Week 2021 and partnered with our chaplains and Employee Well-Being to offer virtual activities, such as Blessing of the Hands and self-care sessions.

From May 6-12, the council offered a variety of ways for nurses to feel celebrated, recognized and appreciated for their hard work, dedication and resilience. For Show Your Pride Day, nurses wore their favorite t-shirts representing a different theme each day: College Pride Day, Disney Magic Day, Sports Team Day and Texas Children’s/Unit Pride Day. Many nurses also enjoyed the grab-and-go breakfast and late-night ice cream treats, among other activities.

Awards and Recognitions

As part of Nurses Week, Texas Children’s recognized our Houston Chronicle Salute to Nurses honorees, one of whom was honored among Greater Houston’s Top 15 Nurses of the Year. In addition, 44 nurses were named Texas Association of Nurses District 9 Nursing Heroes. To learn more about these recipients, click here.

As a finale for the week, the 2021 Nursing Excellence Award honorees received recognition for their commitment to improving nursing care and patient outcomes. With a traditional in-person event on hold for COVID-19, winners were celebrated at a live virtual ceremony hosted by Chief Nursing Officer Jackie Ward. To view photos from the ceremony, view below.

Scholarships

Established in memory of Molly Mae, a beloved, former patient at Texas Children’s, the Molly Mae LeBlanc Nursing Scholarship provides tuition assistance to patient care assistants (PCAs) and RNs who are pursuing bachelor’s or master’s degrees in Nursing. Congratulations to our 2021 recipients, who were honored during Nurses Week:

  • Susan Arriaga is a medical assistant at the Women’s Clinic in The Woodlands. She started at Texas Children’s in 2020. She is enrolled in the Lonestar College BSN program and plans to graduate in May 2025.
  • Brittany Walters is clinical nurse coordinator for the International and Destination Medicine department. She has worked at Texas Children’s since 2014. She plans to virtually attend the Case Management Society of America’s annual conference this summer.
  • Trisha Woodson is a staff nurse in the Surgical/Orthopedic acute care unit at the Main campus. She has been with Texas Children’s since 2008. She is enrolled in the University of Texas at Arlington MSN program and plans to graduate in June 2023.

As the 2021 recipients of the David and Polly Roth Nursing Education Scholarship, these team members honored during Nurses Week will receive tuition assistance for pursuing professional nursing and BSN degrees. Established by Dr. David Roth and his wife, Polly, the first scholarship was awarded in 2017 and is dedicated to Texas Children’s employees in certain roles, including PCAs and medical assistants.

  • Crystal Hanna is a patient care assistant in the Float Pool at West Campus. She joined Texas Children’s in 2016. She is enrolled in the Western Governors BSN program and anticipates graduation in 2023.
  • Chasity Johnson is a patient care assistant in the CVICU at Main Campus, and has been with Texas Children’s since 2015. She is enrolled in the Western Governors BSN program and plans to graduate in 2023.
  • Emma Robinson is a pharmacy tech at the Main Campus. She joined Texas Children’s in 2016. She is enrolled in the University of Texas at Arlington BSN program and is expected to graduate in December 2021.

Texas Children’s also honored this Nurses Week the 2021 recipients of the Len Slusser Nursing Scholarship. The scholarship provides tuition assistance to Texas Children’s registered nurses who are pursuing an advanced nursing degree (Doctor of Nursing Practice or Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing), or financial assistance to registered nurses to attend a professional nursing conference.

  • Sadaf Abbas is a patient care manager at the West Campus PACU and has been with Texas Children’s since 2016. She is enrolled in the Capella University PhD program and plans to graduate in 2024.
  • Nhi Hoang is a staff nurse in The Woodlands PACU. She joined Texas Children’s in 2017 and plans to virtually attend the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Annual Conference this summer.

To view a photo gallery featuring all of our 2021 nursing scholarship winners, view below.

Nursing Excellence Award ceremony
Nursing scholarship winners

Amanda Wenger shares how a writing workshop experience, and other forms of art, provided her with an outlet for self-expression, stress relief and healing during life’s challenges. Read more

May 7, 2021

This week on Mark Wallace’s blog, he reflects on the many roles our remarkable nurses play at Texas Children’s, and how we would not be who we are today without our nursing teams. Read more

May 4, 2021

To kick off Nurses Week at Texas Children’s, Chief Nursing Officer Jackie Ward delivers a special “thank you” message to our nurses for their hard work, resilience and accomplishments. Read more

Front row – Anita Harris-Brown. Back row (left to right) – Kathleen Ulanday, REgina Wysocki, Pippa Andrews-Brown, Lakeesha Etienne

The Smart Pump Interoperability Project recently went live at the Medical Center, West Campus and The Woodlands, thanks to a committed team that pushed forward to bring the innovative technology to Texas Children’s despite disruptions from the ongoing pandemic.

Smart pumps are known to help prevent adverse drug events, especially when linked with electronic health records. These pumps include auto-programming, which allows for specific medications to be transferred directly from a patient’s records to the smart infusion pump, and auto documentation, which allows information like start and stop times to be sent electronically.

To support the project, a total of 2,111 Texas Children’s nurses completed Alaris Interoperability training and gained the skills to improve medication safety and quality practices, and reduce infusion administration errors.

Epic Trainers, Nursing Professional Development Specialists and Clinical Nursing Informaticists collaborated to deploy the training, which was provided as part of nursing education at the system level with the support of Biomedical Engineering, Information Services and Pharmacy. The curriculum included 15 online learning modules with video demonstrations and learner engagement simulations, followed by live hands-on practice.

Additionally, more than 230 nurses served as Interoperability Skill Validators and used the Rover, Alaris pump and Epic EMR integration in an interactive training environment to prepare in-patient and Emergency Center nurses to implement the new practices in time for go-live on January 19 at the Medical Center/Pavilion for Women, and February 9 at West Campus and The Woodlands. Tabletops were conducted with various specialties to assist in preparing clinicians, and a clinical readiness training video was livestreamed with the help of the Simulation Center to give nurses a view of workflows and answer their questions.

Making the project happen

The go-live was implemented in two phases to ensure that nursing staff and those working behind the scenes at each campus would have the necessary support. During the transition at Medical Center/the Pavilion, 233 current infusions were connected to smart pump interoperability. At West Campus and The Woodlands, 35 infusions were connected within just a few hours.

At the center of the effort was the Clinical Subgroup, which drove all decisions and clinical practice. The subgroup consists of clinical nurse specialists and nurse educators from across the organization.

Also instrumental were informatics resource liaisons (IRLs), who worked along with the IS Command Center to help centralize calls surrounding the project. IRLs validated other bedside nurses with hands-on demonstrations; provided necessary feedback related to decision on workflows impacting the project; relayed necessary concerns and information from other bedside staff; and provided hands-on support while maintaining their own patient care load. As trusted liaisons, IRLs communicated problems to IS and communicated their findings and additional information back to their units.

A particular point of pride was the interaction at the unit level, which proved critical to the project’s success. Led by CVICU Clinical Specialist Lauren H. Salinas, nursing staff prepared their units by providing a worksheet to transition their current infusions. At the Pavilion for Women, High- Risk OB Clinical Specialist Tara Barrick and RNC-OB Educator Coordinator Melinda Trussell led the way in validating their staff by adopting the theme, “Operation Interop.”

Praising the project’s success

Nursing staff and vendors who supported the project had plenty had of good things to say about bringing the Smart Pump Interoperability Project to life:

  • “It was easier than I thought; we should have done this earlier.” – 14WT RN
  • “The modules made this way scarier than it truly was.” She said “I felt like I was going to forget something when it’s actually just 2 more steps to our BCMA process.” – 12WT RN
  • “So far, it’s been a smooth transition with no major issues!” – West Campus PICU RN
  • “Back association is beautiful where I never have to guess and go all the way back in the MAR then document my fluid. With back association, it all pulls in and do it right there at the bedside with another nurse.” – RN Float Nurse West Campus
  • “That is excellent work! The average pumps go live will see organizations hover at around 70% compliance for the first week, so we’re trending above that which is great news.” – Bryan K. (Epic TS)
  • “This is the best go-live I have ever supported. Expect some phone calls from our other pediatric customers.” – BD support team

Each year during Nurse’s Week, we pause to celebrate nurses and their contributions to our patients and their profession. The American Nurses Association Enterprise has joined with the World Health Organization in extending the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife” into 2021, as well as extending the duration of Nurse’s Week to a month-long event, to elevate the profession and further recognize nurses for their steadfast commitment to meeting the needs of patients.

To celebrate National Nurses Week from May 6-12, Texas Children’s Nursing Retention Council has taken great pride in developing plans to ensure that our more than 3,500 nurses from across the system know how deeply valued they are and how much we appreciate them for their hard work, dedication and sacrifice especially during these challenging times.

“We are excited about the opportunity to celebrate our nurses during National Nurses Week,” said Rhonda Wolfe, director of Acute Care Nursing at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus. “There are several events scheduled across the system, ensuring alignment with social distancing guidelines, to recognize the hard work of our nurses over the past year.”

The Nursing Retention Council collaborated with the Employee Well-Being team and our chaplains to create virtual support during this unprecedented time with the virtual Blessing of the Hands event. To see the full schedule of events, click here.

2021 Nursing Excellence Awards

As a finale to Nurses Week from May 6-12, Texas Children’s will be recognizing our 2021 Nursing Excellence Award honorees for their commitment to improving nursing care and patient outcomes. Since a formal in-person ceremony could not be held this year due to COVID-19, winners will be celebrated at a live virtual ceremony hosted by our Chief Nursing Officer Jackie Ward.

Congratulations to this year’s Nursing Excellence award recipients (pictured above)! Excerpts from their nominations are included below.

  • Staff Nurse of the Year – Alva Mixon, Staff Nurse, Endocrine/Diabetes Clinic
    “Alva is one of the best nurses I have ever seen…Very caring, personable, and always goes above and beyond to provide excellent patient and family centered care in the Diabetes Urgent Bay…Her patients love her, her team respects her, and leadership looks highly at her willingness to do whatever is needed for the good of the patients and the team…She upholds the highest professional standards, always has a positive attitude, and a desire to achieve results. She has terrific interpersonal skills…Patients, physicians and support staff all uniformly appreciate her calm, kindly, and knowledgeable manner. She puts all our families in the Diabetic Urgent Bay at ease.”
  • Nurse Preceptor of the Year – Michael Sparks, Staff Nurse, Pavilion for Women, Labor and Delivery
    “Michael is a fantastic team mate to work with, willing to help, never makes you feel bad for not understanding something… He is always open to new ideas and additional opportunities for learning how to improve our care… He promotes excellent patient care by helping the family truly embrace their newest member. He put in extra effort to individualize our training and make sure we understood how to prepare and care for different patients. Michael is a phenomenal preceptor – this is evident in the feedback I receive from orientees, nursing students, medical students, leaders, and coworkers.”
  • Nurse Resident of the Year – Megan Bush, Staff Nurse 1st Year, PICU
    “Megan exemplifies all the qualities we seek in our nurses, both her diligence to patient care as well as her empathetic approach to patient and family relationships. She is eager to learn, open to feedback, and always takes a challenge head on. She radiates positivity, compassion, and an eagerness to grow and improve daily. She supports her team by always jumping in to help, advocates for her patients and families, and speaks with professionalism and warmth. She is relentlessly positive and bubbly and her can-do attitude has made her a true asset to TCH.”
  • Nurse Leader of the Year – Alex Sardual, Assistant Clinical Director, PICU
    “Alex always performs his job with a positive attitude and in a manner that makes it clear he is a fantastic team player. His best attribute is undoubtedly his hard work and dedication….He is available 24 hours a day by phone and is constantly checking on the status of patients and staffing to see if there is any way he can help the unit. Alex consistently supports our team in a way that both validates and alleviates the stress of the unit. Every day and every night. He is amazing.”
  • Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year – Elise Whalen, Nurse Practitioner, Pulmonology
    “Elise has shown excellent common sense judgment and humane sensibility to patients and families. She is a superb and sensitive clinician. Patients and families have easily come to trust her care. She is an absolute team player…She constantly collaborates within the section. She has quickly established herself as a provider who is dedicated to excelling in the professional values, collaborative relationships, leadership, and family-centered care that are the cornerstones of advanced practice. She works to ensure that patients are able to understand their own health and advocate for themselves.”
  • Advanced Degree Nurse of the Year – Anne Lam, Clinical Specialist, PICU
    “Anne shows fierce advocacy, sense of humor, unflappable calmness, and is a pillar of stability. She keeps us focused on our mission to care for our patients and we are so thankful for this leadership….She has always strived to and succeeded in directly affecting the lives of children at Texas Children’s Hospital through diligent care, a focus on Quality and Safety, and her sheer determination to always advocate for perfection in care of the most fragile patients.”
  • Friend of Nursing – Dr. Amy Arrington, Physician, Special Isolation Unit
    “At every turn, she has supported nursing staff with extensive PPE training, COVID specific simulations, and infectious disease lectures. No physician has done more for nursing this past year than she has. Nurses are valued equals to be consulted as experts and developed as leaders. She was always concerned with how the nursing staff were doing and would debrief with the group after a difficult situation. She consistently solicited nursing feedback with the goal of improving patient care and team safety. I refer to her here by her title only for the purpose of official communication. On the unit, we call her Amy.”
Houston Chronicle’s Salute to Nurses

Each year, thousands are nominated for the Houston Chronicle Salute to Nurses award and 15 outstanding nursing professionals are chosen to be honored as greater Houston’s Top 15 Nurses of the Year. Karla Abela, assistant director of clinical practice in the PICU was among the top 15 award recipients. Baylor College of Medicine nurse manager Debbie Barrera from the Research Administration department was also on the Top 15 list and Alicia Howell from the Cancer Center was on the top 150 list.

In addition to Karla being honored in the top 15, a total of 27 Texas Children’s nurses were recognized as being among the top 150 in the Greater Houston area.

Danielle Baker (NICU VAT)
Sophia Bailey (Operating Rooms CHSS)
Nancy Benson (WOO Hospitalist)
Warren Boudreau (Quality Administration)
Lisa Burns (Methodist – Willowbrook)
Natashia Bush (Emergency Room Physicians)
Amanda Byers (WOO acute care)
Melissa Campbell (Transport Services)
Heather Collins (West Campus Nursing Operations)
Crystal Dunaway (IRU Nursing)
Sherry Grant (Nursing Float)
Robin Haidacher (TCCC OP Clinic)
Nennan Harris (HR – Employee Health)
Shelbi Hill (Neurology Administration)
Tina Knutson (WOO ICU)
Diana Lopez (Supply Chain Administration)
Maria Miller (WC Nursing Operations Float)
Alva Mixon (Diabetes/Endocrine Clinic)
Denine Moody (Nursing Operations)
Dana Reaves O’Neal (NPP Acute Care Services)
Aarti Patel (NICU II)
Rhoda Phillips (TCCC Clinical Administration)
Kimberly Sanchez (Women’s Specialty Unit)
Ketrese White (Executive Comp and Benefits)
Lisa White (WOO Acute Care)
Amanda Willis (NPP Administration)
Megan Wimbish (Autism Center)

Texas Nurses Association District 9 Nursing Heroes

The Texas Nurses Association District 9 recently identified 44 nurses from Texas Children’s Hospital as Nursing Heroes for going above and beyond – supporting those in clinical practice, in the community, or in any setting during this time of increased need.

Jennifer Abernathy (Nursing Operations)
Tara Barrick (PFW 9th floor)
Regi Biju (Cancer Center)
Chelsea Campbell (Cardiology)
Mona Clark (12 West Tower)
Sheritha Copeland (OB L&D)
Maria D. Cruz (WOO Cancer Center)
Lindsey Curry (CVICU)
Sheranda Fesler (Nursing Quality)
Amelia Fleming (BMT)
Teresa Gomez (7 South)
Lindsey Gooding (West Campus Cancer Center)
Susan Hardy-Croskey (PFW OB/GYN)
Marissa Hergott (Inpatient Float)
Myoshia Hollings (12 West Tower)
Chelsey Hood (Cancer Center)
Stacey Hudspeth (VAT)
Rebecca Kudlaty (10 West Tower)
Jackie Kuna (Cancer Center)
Julie LaSalle (CICU)
Melissa Lopez (WOO Cancer Center)
Donna “DK” Lovick (LT ACHD)
April Lyle (Cancer Center)
Kathy McCarthy (Cancer Center)
Morin McMillian (Progressive Care)
Amy Mitchell (VAT)
Alva Mixon (Diabetes/Endocrine Clinic)
Denine Moody (Nursing Operations)
Yvette Ochoa (Nursing Operations)
Cindy Orellana (Pulmonary Adolescent Med)
Kaitlyn Pawelek (NICU II)
Mary Joy Pedroso (MBU)
Knezyk Pennington (West Campus PACU)
Rhoda Phillips (Cancer Center)
Ashley Pollard (West Campus EC)
Erika K. Quinlan (WOO Dermatology)
Nicole Sanders (Quality Improvement)
Alex Sardual (PICU)
Kenya Starks (Emergency Center)
Lori Stoddard (MBU)
Jenny Tcharmatchi (PICU)
Jacqueline Ward (Nursing Administration)
Rachel Werley (WOO Cancer Center)
James Ziegenfuss (PACU)

Congratulations to our nurses! Happy Nurses Week!

April 27, 2021

Victoria McLarty shares what she enjoys most about her role as a transplant coordinator for Texas Children’s Heart Center and why it’s important to register to become an organ donor. Read more