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Rise & Lead with Rhonda Brandon
PHILADELPHIA, PA — May 6, 2021. Wambi, a holistic real-time recognition and culture transformation solution in healthcare, announces the winners of their first annual “Nurse of the Year” award.
To shine a light on the outstanding nurses serving our clients nationwide, Wambi launched the 2021 Wambi Nurse of the Year Award in anticipation of National Nurses Week, which runs May 6th to May 12th. Users of the Wambi platform were encouraged to nominate a peer who they believe embodies one of Wambi’s core values: Gratitude, Compassion, Joy, Imagination, and Fearlessness. The purpose of the annual initiative is to promote nurse recognition, inspire feelings of teamwork and camaraderie, and boost feelings of appreciation and optimism among nurses during the weeks leading up to National Nurses Week.
Users from all participating clients submitted nurse nominations, and Wambi received overwhelmingly positive feedback from executive leadership. Lisa Jennings, Director of Patient Experience at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health Medical Center said, “The camaraderie of our team has grown exponentially over this pandemic and Wambi Nurse of the Year nominations have been a wonderful way for nurses to celebrate each other. The sentiments are so beautiful and healing.”
Eileen is a clinical nurse working in the ICU at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health Medical Center in Bel Air, Maryland. Eileen was nominated by her peer, Tammie Alley, who said, “Eileen is a very compassionate nurse who is always looking out for her patients, and other nurse’s patients. I witnessed her compassion with a patient that was not hers but was in the process of dying and on COVID isolation. The patient’s family was unfortunately not able to be present during the time of her death. Eileen took time out of her busy schedule to sit with the patient and hold her hand. What great compassion.” Eileen responded to the news of winning by saying, “This is fantastic news and I am so honored. I couldn’t do it without the awesome team that I work with. The last year has been a trying time and our patients need us now more than ever. Being a nurse requires that we fulfill many roles for the well-being of our patients. We provide the hand to hold, the shoulder to cry on, the ears to listen, and the smile behind the mask! Nursing will never just be a job, it’s a calling.”
Eileen was chosen based on the strength of her nomination and its alignment with Wambi values. Because the Wambi platform reinforces that sharing gratitude is equally as important as receiving recognition, both Eileen Keuster and Tammy Alley will receive a free pair of BALA Twelves Premium Nursing Shoes.
Five honorable mentions were also selected, each aligning with one of Wambi’s key values.
Declaring the Wambi Nurse of the Year Award a success in uniting nurses and promoting gratitude during these demanding times, Wambi CEO and Co-founder Rebecca Metter adds:
“There has never been a more important time to thank the nurses who are at the bedside, day after day, providing compassionate care. While the outpouring of gratitude from patients and Americans as a whole is priceless, so too is the message of appreciation a nurse receives from her peers and colleagues, recognizing their hard work and dedication to serving others. Wambi is proud to be part of the sharing of these moments.”
Wambi’s holistic real-time recognition and culture transformation solution improves the healthcare experience for patients and staff through the power of gratitude. Its gamified technology delivers real-time feedback from patients and other team members that recognizes, rewards, and motivates optimal care. With the proven ability to increase workforce engagement, reduce clinician burnout, and drive higher patient satisfaction, Wambi improves human connection for all.
For additional information, please visit www.wambi.org.
Meet Bonnie Barnes of The DAISY Foundation
“Those stories bring nurses back to their why. We hear all the time, ‘Thank you for reminding me why I became a nurse.’ This sharing of extraordinary, compassionate care brings those organizations’ missions and values to life and helps the nurses remember why they started on this career. Then the behaviors that they described become examples for everybody else to follow.”
Listen to hear how The DAISY Foundation honors nurses each year and how incorporating meaningful recognition in your organization is essential to combating burnout and nurse turnover.
Bonnie Barnes models the Wambi value of joy as she identifies the key component of meaningful recognition: the personalization aspect.
“The way that I think about meaningful recognition as it’s been described in the literature is that it’s recognition on steroids. What makes it meaningful is it’s personal. It’s personal to the recipient. It’s specific about what is being recognized for that person or for that nurse. It has a long lasting impact on the person who’s receiving it, it acknowledges specific behavior, and very importantly, the impact it had on a patient, family member, or coworker. It’s relevant to the situation and the nurse’s contribution.”
Meaningful recognition fuels everything at Wambi. In honor of nurses, we’d like to invite you to our celebration of uplifting and recognizing the essential contributions of nurses nationwide. This resource hub is filled with workbooks, toolkits, a nurses gift guide, upcoming nurse-related events, inspiring reads, partner initiatives, and a spotlight on the 1st Wambi Year of the Nurse Award. Visit our National Nurses Week Hub today!
This Gut + Science episode is sponsored by Wambi. Don’t miss out on future episodes; subscribe today!
Written by Cheryl Williams Director of Marketing at Wambi
For most of my life, I took the people who worked in healthcare for granted. They were just part of the system that I expected to be there for me in my time of need: an issue pops up, I visit a doctor, my issue gets fixed — end of story. Then in 2015, I was pulled unwillingly into the heart of the system when my 2.5 year old son was diagnosed with a DIPG brain tumor.
I will not pretend I was an easy parent for healthcare workers to deal with; in fact, I was the opposite. From the moment of my son’s unexpected 100% terminal diagnosis, I scowled at almost every person who entered our room, requested a meeting to review MRI results, or even passed me in the hallway. I assumed they were all wrong, that they weren’t trying to save my son, and that it was my new mission in life to find a way to beat the odds. Of course, they knew what I didn’t at the time: I was in denial.
We spent almost seven months mostly inpatient at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, battling the system and the tireless healthcare workers who worked there only to serve. Countless times I argued with neurologists, yelled at nurses for needlessly waking my son up during a rare period of deep sleep, pushed attending physicians out of the room for being insensitive, and scoffed at physical therapists when I thought they weren’t doing enough to keep his feet from dropping. Only years after losing my son have I come to realize that every single day, whether in Oncology, the Emergency Department, the PICU, or Transitional Care as we were trained to take him back home, I neglected to show appreciation for the hundreds of workers who took special care to be kind and patient. In fact, only after what would be his final MRI that showed a combination of his stroke and the tumor’s progression had taken over his “thinking” brain did we accept the inevitable and begin to look at the teams around us through a more compassionate lens.
In hindsight, there are so many moments that I wish I could revisit to pause and thank someone for their kind word or action. Because now, years later, it’s not the times when I was angry or annoyed that have been permanently pressed into my memory of that experience—it’s the positive moments that have staying power. And while my son was in the care of countless amazing nurses and doctors, there were so many times the other healthcare workers I remember most.
This year, Hospital Week takes on new meaning for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While my story has a different theme, its purpose is the same: to share appreciation for every person working in the hospital ecosystem, often the unsung heroes working just shy of the limelight. Here are some of my experiences with them:
Early in our diagnosis, we spent some time in the Oncology unit, taking for granted peace and quiet of its hallways that we would soon miss when we landed in the PICU as a long-term home. One day, a surprise visitor showed up, going room-to-room to greet patients and offering to pose for a photo with them…a Cincinnati Reds player! My son wasn’t bedridden yet, so we came out of our room for an unexpected photo op with a real-life major league baseball player. It was a special moment; a moment that took lots of behind-the-scenes coordination by the Marketing team and countless others. For your thoughtfulness in creating big moments, to Marketing I say, “Thank you.”
You can’t possibly fathom the value of social services until you find yourself in a medical situation where you don’t care if you pay your mortgage or your electric bill, because those things have moved to the very back of your mind and are no longer a priority. During our stay and in the aftermath, our Social Worker was always available, oftentimes at the drop of a hat, to help with anything I couldn’t bear to do, whether it was filling out medical paperwork or paying my bills. She came armed with information, found ways to help with the financial burden, and even arranged the payment of things on my behalf. She filled out forms and just showed me where to sign. What’s more, she rolled with the punches of whatever anger and helplessness I dished out on her and continued providing her unwavering support. To all the Social Workers advocating for their patients, I say, “Thank you.”
Perhaps one of the few people I was kind to in-the-moment during our stay was our Dietician. She dedicated her time to experimenting with tube-feeding formulas I demanded in lieu of what was standard at the hospital and met with me frequently talking through pros and cons of different experimental diets for cancer patients. Farther down the road, she patiently explained the body’s lessening need for calories as body systems begin to shut down and helped me prepare mentally for the future. To dieticians working to keep patients nourished, I say, “Thank you.”
The proactive involvement and constant presence of Child Life was indispensable for our family. In the beginning, they came to our room one day with plaster and water to create a mold of my son and my daughter holding hands—we still have the original and have also worked with a 3D printer to make sure we have it forever. We celebrated my son’s 3rd birthday in the PICU, and they were there with musical instruments and singing to make the day as special as it could be. For my older daughter, they took her to their activity room to get any toys or movies or crafts to help her cope with the situation. To say this team goes above and beyond in creating memorable moments is an understatement. To Child Life Services, I say, “Thank you.”
I am a big believer in the power of holistic healthcare. I treasured the visits from Massage Therapy, who not only massaged my son’s skin to keep blood flowing, but also offered me massages and affirmations that I was a good mother and to give myself grace. Music Therapy gave special attention to my daughter, and even came to our house to do a recording session of her singing my son’s favorite song, with a recording of his heartbeat in the background. I still get emotional thinking back on how much they helped so many days to calm down my racing adrenaline so I could be more present. To Integrative Care teams, I say, “Thank you.”
As I settled into my habit of spending 24 hours a day, day after day, in an intensive care unit, my nerves began to wear down and every little noise, every little detail had the potential for sending me into a fury. I never learned her name, but one of my favorite memories is of a woman in Environmental Services who worked the night shift. Rather than come in and perform her duties in the room while my son was sleeping, she carefully tiptoed in to grab the garbage cans and full linen basket and took them back out into the hallway. She would quietly shut the door to our room and do all of her emptying and bag-changing out there, simply to avoid waking him up. Did it take her longer to finish our room? Absolutely. But the extra care she took to think about what could make his experience better was priceless. To Environmental Services workers, I say, “Thank you.”
Many months of living in the hospital meant I got to know faces of the cafeteria workers. I rarely spoke to them because I was walking around in a stupor, but I recognized them day after day. One day that was especially rough, it must’ve shown on my face, and the person dishing pasta onto my plate paused and said, “I gave you a little extra because you seem like you could use something special today.” I vividly remember his warm, empathetic smile. Not to mention several times when I accidentally journeyed to the cafeteria without any way to pay, and the cashiers graciously gave me a free pass. To the Food Services workers I say, “Thank you.”
These highlighted moments are just a few of dozens of stories I could share to showcase the importance of the workers that span every department of the hospital ecosystem. We cannot thank them enough! And on the flipside, as a family member who supported a patient and practically lived in the hospital for months, we should urge patients and families to recognize and thank everyone who supports them during their stay because the science is real: showing appreciation and sharing gratitude for others positively impacts our mental and physical health. Let’s take special care this year during Hospital Week to recognize those amazing people and memorialize the moments that impact us. Thankfully, there is now a simple tool that connects patients to those healthcare workers to easily share that meaningful gratitude: Wambi.
Learn more about how Wambi works here. To see Wambi in action, request a demo.
Cheryl is an experienced marketing leader with 20 years across the B2B, retail, and direct-to-consumer landscapes. She joined the Wambi team in 2019 to focus on brand identity, marketing strategy, and digital transformation. Cheryl’s expertise is in bringing ideas to life to achieve organizational goals, through a careful blend of imagination and analysis. Her affinity for marketing stems from a lifelong love of art, language, and the power of communication. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cheryl lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children. Hobbies that spark joy in Cheryl’s free time are reading, yoga, all forms of art therapy, and dabbling in decadent cooking.
For those who are looking to practice positivity more frequently, inspirational quotes are a surefire way to reaffirm oneself. From inspiring historical figures, to favorite pop culture references, there’s no shortage of motivational quotes! Wambi’s Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Bonnie Clipper, looks to Audrey Hepburn’s famous words, “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible!” for her quick pick-me-up. In a world where real-time feedback loops can provide instant motivation, these easily-accessible, pocket-sized words of wisdom are effective empowerment tools in confirming what we deep down know to be true about ourselves and our impact. And when it comes to nursing that impact couldn’t be greater, which is why we turned to our users in Wambi to share the quotes that inspire them most.
Reshare these quotes on social media and tag @wambicares on Instagram and Twitter to celebrate nurses and their abounding wisdom that can inspire us all:
From Marie Foley-Danecker, Chief Nursing Officer at Ocean Medical Center (Hackensack Meridian Health) I share this quote every month at nursing orientation, “Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.” It is from The Candymakers by Wendy Mass. While the demands on the care team have never been greater, it is essential we ensure we are providing humanistic care.
From Marshanell Wright, Clinical Adult Service Director, DNP, MSN, RN I live by the below quote and it is why I recognize my team through Wambi because they deserve to feel special for the positive impact they have on patients:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
From Rennier Marc Razal, Director of Critical Care at East Orange General Hospital Maya Angelou’s quote reminds me of why I stay in leadership role and in nursing. I believe it’s true. Emotions/feelings are what drive people to say things and do things. If we can all treat it each other with respect, empathy, and dignity, that’s a great start with any relationship.
From Thelma Orozco, RN and Assistant Department Manager at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center As a leader, my goal is to create and shape the environment and culture to support practice excellence. This builds a safe environment, leading to positive patient outcomes, and supports next generation leaders. I related to this quote that I encountered in one of my leadership class and adopted it:
“There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.”– Warren G. Bennis
Giving meaningful recognition creates a different culture and leaves a deeper impact on the recipient. The staff love Wambi for recognizing their work. Many thanks.
From Maurice Davis, Certified Nursing Assistant at Palomar Vista Every day, I’m asked, “How are you?” by the staff and patients. My answer always the same:
“Just another day in paradise, and if it gets any better than this, I couldn’t take it.” – Anonymous
From Melissa Copeland, Nurse Manager at Upper Chesapeake Health
As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul, and body of our patients, their families, and ourselves.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”- Mahatma Gandhi
From Kim Armstrong, Registered Nurse at Upper Chesapeake Health
“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
From Sara Camperi, Nurse Manager for Labor and Delivery Unit at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center
“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” — Mark Twain
Looking for more powerful tools to help improve your workplace experience? Read “Never Forget The Power of Empathy.“