Without a good creative culture, most ideas such as a heart transplant may never have existed. It is also the small ideas that generate big contributions to patient care. Dana Dent, RN at St. Joseph Medical Center exemplifies those contributions.

Dana makes a tremendous difference in the lives of our patients by providing quality education for the nursing staff in the Medical Surgical division at St. Joseph Medical Center. Dana is an outstanding role model to many nursing residents that call SJMC their home. He has developed a robust curriculum for our new hires causing other departments to follow his example.

Dana has been a Registered Nurse for 15 years with the majority of those years practicing as a Unit Based Educator. Not only does Dana provide education to the nursing staff in Med/Surg, he is looked upon as a vital Epic resource across CHI Franciscan Health. If there is an Epic team, you can bet Dana is on it. He guides and helps the nursing staff with each new process change and provides a rationale surrounding the change so they fully understand. He takes time to listen to questions and provides answers timely so staff has the most updated information. Dana has also participated on the Heart Failure Colloquium. Dana was a significant member of this team and ultimately helped CHI Franciscan Health received the HR accreditation. His valuable input and creative ideas affected positive change for our patients as well as nursing staff.

Though Dana serves as an indirect partner with our patients, I know with 100% certainty that his compassion and dedication to nursing shines through the nursing staff he mentors. Dana tackles any situation with confidence and encourages new nursing staff to facilitate creativity to promote a positive learning experience. Dana demonstrates a commitment to the nursing vision as he is currently obtaining his Master's in nursing with an emphasis in Education.

Dana has made significant contributions both with our hospital as well as our organization that ultimately contributed to improve patient care. He is an invaluable resource that deserves to be recognized as an outstanding role model at St. Joseph Medical Center. Thank you Dana for all that you do for us, our patients, nursing staff and community.