I would like to nominate Ranita Hiller. Where do I begin to talk about the contributions Ranita has given to CHI Health Mercy? When I first started at Mercy, Ranita was on Maternity leave and at several meetings, staff would tell me, "wait until you meet Ranita, she is awesome." The day that I met her and worked with her on projects, those staff members were wrong, she wasn't awesome, she was spectacular!! Even on days when Ranita is working her "administrative day", if the unit needs help she steps in and helps her staff to ensure patient safety and she said, "that is what a TEAM does." A staff member stated "she is the first person to stop what she is doing to help her staff/co-workers. She is a perfect example of nursing at its finest!! Ranita is an excellent patient advocate and will defend and protect her patients and staff 100% always!"
Ranita also stepped up as the OPIC chair mid-year when Ryan left. Ranita takes ownership and pride in her work. She was our Cipher Champion and led Mercy in successfully implementing hourly rounding, nurse and leader rounding. Anytime you would have an issue with Cipher, when you contacted her she would always follow-up on items and be our voice to upper management. Ranita was recognized as a WOW employee from a fellow director as follows: "I would like to recognize Ranita for all the work she has done to get us ready to implement Cipher. She kept the leadership team informed of the implementation plan. Ranita provided education to super users. On the first day of the rollout, she made walking rounds to all the units working with staff to understand how to make assignments and work through the issues staff were having. Ranita did a great job with this implementation."
Ranita also leads by example and is in the process of obtaining her certification which has inspired fellow staff to work on that goal this upcoming year. Ranita also was a mentor for a new chaplain during his orientation. This was the first time in the system where a nurse was involved in this process and with its success, it is being considered to implement within the system.
Please consider Ranita for a DAISY Award.