Karen Hollis, our manager on 9 Ortho is our role model. She always has a smile and a kind word to every one of us on 9 Ortho. If our staff needs anything, Karen's office door is always open and she welcomes us to see her even when she is really busy with work. Karen is a firm leader who is kind and professional in her approach in correcting unwanted behavior on our floor. She is not punitive or mean to her staff. Karen always knows what is going on the unit with our patients and staff. She rounds on patients and staff frequently. Even our patients frequently ask about Karen. She always tells us that teamwork is a must on 9 Ortho and her motto is "treat people the way you want to be treated". When bed alarms go off in the rooms next to her office, she is the first one to go to those patients' rooms to make sure that patients are safe. Her behavior and attitude set the bar high for all of us to follow. As an example, we had an elderly patient who stayed on our unit for 6 months. He never had visitors. His family declined to see him. Karen would frequently go to check on him, she would take his clothes to wash, get him up to eat breakfast or simply stay and talk to him. The patient would always ask to see if Karen was at work so that she could visit with him. He progressed towards recovery a lot better and faster because of it.
Karen is a transparent leader. She keeps us all up to date on new developments on the unit and the hospital. She works hard on making sure that the bedside nursing voice is heard, and that our nursing staff is cared for. Karen was the one who worked diligently on establishing a unit based counsel on 9 Ortho. As a fruit of her hard work, our UBC has helped us with improving the patient care delivery and staff morale on the floor.
Karen helps us on the floor to care for our patients. She goes to meet newly admitted patient and assists with baths, ambulation or anything else patient care related without a hesitation. Her vision is clear to all of us. Our patient will receive the best care from her staff! We enjoy working on 9 Ortho because we all know that our leader's goal is to make our workplace conducive to learning and advancement in our profession. Karen has organized learning sessions for our staff to attend so that our nurses have an opportunity to prepare for Orthopedic Certification. She was also instrumental in developing a Joint Camp for our joint replacement patients last year. Karen makes sure that the camp has our staff teaching the patients about post-op care every Wednesday. If we are short staffed, she goes there to teach it herself.
Karen tells us that Parkland is the best place to be a nurse. She stands by Parkland in its vision and goals. She shows her love for this place through her daily actions. For example, she taught us that all available staff must go to assist with a new admission. Karen is one of the nurses who is there to greet our new patients. She nurtures new staff, checks on them daily, if not in person, she does it through the email or texts. Our new staff members frequently tell me that Karen is the best boss they ever had! She is easy to talk to and she is always prompt in returning emails or phone calls. She does not rush through her conversation with staff, making them feel unique and important. That is a great quality in a leader in such a busy place.
I have personally worked with Karen for a few years now, I consider myself a very fortunate person to get to know Karen as a great manager, nurse, and a coworker. I love coming to work because I know that my boss supports me in my profession and in work-related daily duties. Our hospital needs managers like Karen. We rarely have people leave our unit. It's usually because they go back to school or move away to a faraway place. People don't leave our unit because of our leader or our staff. Karen is always the first one to recognize others for work well done, but yet she is humble and quiet about the enormous work she does day after day in our hospital for our patients and staff.
I am blessed to find a place where I enjoy coming to work every day. I recommend Parkland to people in my community because I know that we have the best nurses and PCAs in the nation. Parkland is a great place to work because of the leaders like Karen Hollis.