Did You Know?
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In 2011, Good Samaritan Foundation celebrates 60 years of service to nursing students and nursing schools in Texas.
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Good Samaritan Foundation is the leading private provider of nursing scholarships in the State of Texas.
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In 60 years, Good Samaritan Foundation has awarded more than $15 million to more than 15,000 nursing students in Texas.
Profiles of Excellence- 2011
Clinical Practice in a Large Hospital
Alice Neycheril, DNP, RN, CRRN, ANP-C
Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Dr. Alice Neycheril is a seasoned nurse with more than 30 years of experience, including 15 years as a nurse practitioner and 10 years in nursing management. She currently serves as a nurse practitioner in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center (MEDVAMC), whose mission is to honor America’s veterans by providing care with the highest standards of compassion, commitment, excellence, professionalism, integrity, accountability, and stewardship.
Dr. Neycheril sets far-reaching professional goals for herself, including advancing her education while continuing to provide exceptional clinical care. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1980, her Master of Science in Health Administration in 1990, certification as a nurse practitioner in 1996, and Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2009.
Omana Simon, DNP, care coordinator at MEDVAMC, describes Dr. Neycheril as “a highly devoted, compassionate professional who leads by example and sets the bar high” and “a prime example of a competent nurse who has proven her expertise in direct clinical practice.” She provides evidence-based care for a mix of veterans with rehabilitation needs, with responsibilities that include clinical practice in the outpatient setting; inpatient consults; coordination; education; and direction of medical residents, fellows and nursing students, particularly those caring for patients with cardiac, orthopedic, neurologic, and with other medical/surgical conditions who are seeking rehabilitative care.
Dr. Neycheril has facilitated improvements in quality and performance by providing data for improving patient follow-up with stroke patients, assisting in discharge planning, conducting additional telephone consults, and facilitating stays for out-of-town patients until they achieved their therapy goals. Through close collaboration with providers in Prime Care, specialty physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice nurses, she has improved diagnostic evaluations and care for inpatient and outpatient veterans.
She is an active member of the MEDVAMC Nursing Recruitment/Retention Council and a hospital-wide MRSA Committee member, counseling nursing staff on the importance of family education. She also functions as a staunch advocate for patients and families who need assistance.
A frequent public speaker, Dr. Neycheril is committed to continuing education for herself and others, as evidenced by her long list of presentations at MEDVAMC and invited presentations to other organizations. She frequently attends workshops and other CEU programs after work hours and provides feedback to the hospital’s Nurse Practitioner Council. Throughout her career, she has oriented new employees and served as a preceptor for nurse practitioner students from local universities. She currently mentors a nurse practitioner doctoral student, two nurse practitioner students, and one neurology fellow.
She is also active in local and national professional organizations, serving as chair of Houston Indian Nurses Association’s annual seminars for four consecutive years in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. She maintains active membership in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, Houston Area Nurse Practitioners, Houston Indian Nurses Association, Indian Nurses Association of America, and the Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses Association.
She co-chaired the national conference for the Indian Nurses Association of America, held in Houston in October 2010, as well as the Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses Association of America 8th Annual Educational Conference, held in Houston in March 2011. During her tenure as 2009-2010 membership chair for the Association of Indian Nurses of America, she helped form new chapters in Florida, Connecticut and North Carolina. She is president of the Indian American Nurses Association Houston for 2011-2012.
Dr. Neycheril has contributed more than 1,000 community service hours in the past 10 years. In addition to her already busy routine, she volunteers every Saturday with the Indian Doctor's Charity Clinic and during the Christmas season at Star of Hope. She actively volunteers with the Fort Bend Women’s Shelter and served as a community volunteer during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike.
She was honored with the Nursing Excellence Award in the Advance Practice RN category at the 2010 National Indian Nurses Conference, received a professional achievement award at the Knanaya Catholic Congress of North America National Convention in 2010, and was recognized with the National Convention Mentee Award of the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Association in 2009.
As the second eldest of eight children, Dr. Neycheril helped her mother care for her siblings at home. “When my brother was two years old, he fell into a ditch while playing and broke his collarbone,” she says. “I was only six years old but I was very passionate about caring for him after the accident. I think I knew then that I was going to be in the healthcare field. Even though I did my master’s in healthcare administration, my passion has always been in the clinical field. I’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs in my life and have tried to live it day by day, with compassion and caring. I have a good support system and am very thankful to God and all my coworkers, supporters and family for the part they played in helping me earn the Nursing in Excellence Award.
Clinical Practice in a Small Hospital
Ann Kingrey, RN, IBCLC
Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital
Ann Kingrey never considered nursing as a career until the summer after her freshman year in college. She was working at a newspaper office in Albemarle, North Carolina, and headed toward a degree in math and computer science.
“My mom and I were walking one evening, and she asked me what I was going to do with my life. I didn’t know. She reminded me that my grandfather, who had died eight years earlier of prostate cancer, had always held nurses in high regard and thought that nursing was a very noble career. I wasn’t crazy about the blood or the science, but I did meet with the nursing dean that summer, who promptly told me that I did not have what it took to be a nurse. So the challenge was on. I took it and ran with it, and I graduated.”
Today, as the lactation consultant at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital, Ann is there for mothers and babies to help ensure a great beginning in life. “There is no feat too great for Ann,” writes Louise V. Hernandez, RN, MSN, director of perinatal services at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital in her nomination of Ann for the Excellence in Nursing Award. “Always willing to lend a helping hand, you’ll find her feeding an infant, soothing a crying baby, relieving a coworker for lunch, helping facilitate a discharge or assisting at a delivery or procedure. Knowledgeable in her field of expertise, she continues to seek new ways to provide evidence-based care to her patients.”
Hernandez says Ann’s enthusiasm and passion for nursing is evident every day in her work. “She demonstrates excellence in every aspect of clinical practice and exemplifies the finest qualities of the nursing profession. As a preceptor to our new nurses in the area of lactation and a resource to others, she is a valuable member of our perinatal team. She goes above and beyond every day to meet the needs of our patients.”
With 26 years of experience in nursing, Ann is known for her smile and positive attitude. She makes herself available to patients by cell phone 24 hours a day, and on the rare occasions that patients require transfer to a higher level of care, they can count on her to stop by the room and check in on their needs. She follows up with patients weeks after their discharge and also makes herself available to families to reassure them about the care their loved ones are receiving. “It’s not surprising that many of her patients would like to take Ann home,” Hernandez writes.
A mother of two, Ann left her own family on Mother’s Day to assist a new mother with breastfeeding. She teaches sibling and breastfeeding classes monthly and represents the Perinatal Unit on the hospital’s Service Council Committee to help maintain high patient satisfaction scores. She was also instrumental in gaining Texas Ten Step recertification and Chest Pain Center accreditation for Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital.
“During the mock Rapid Response Team exercise required for Chest Pain Center accreditation, Ann brought the surveyor to tears with the role she played,” Hernandez says. “When they called in the Rapid Response Team for a mock code in the Perinatal Unit, Ann responded in a way that was so compassionate that the surveyor later told our CEO that she felt it was an actual code, not just a walk-through. Ann’s caring was that real.”
When Ann assumed management of the hospital’s breastfeeding boutique, she made time to find new vendors and merchandise for the store, and organized a sale and open house during the holiday season that increased awareness, sales and rentals of breast pumps. And despite her busy schedule, she finds time for fundraising.
Thanks to Ann’s efforts as the Perinatal Unit chair for the March of Dimes campaign, the unit exceeded its fundraising goal. She is also a founding member of the Central Louisiana Breastfeeding Coalition and helped raise $375,000 to support breastfeeding education in local Louisiana parishes in 2006. She was named Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital Perinatal Nurse of the Year in 2010.
“I work with a lot of really smart, compassionate women. It takes a team to pull off what we do here, and we are definitely a team,” she says. “I can come to work on any given day and take care of people from a myriad of nationalities and cultures and religions. I love seeing a new baby being integrated into a family and helping those parents become parents. I love seeing them over the course of several days blossom from this anxious little couple into these great parents. I love being a part of that.”
Clinical Practice in Hospice/Home Health Care/Clinic/Other Setting
Loanne Tran, CARN
Memorial Hermann Prevention and Recovery Center
When Loanne Tran, CARN, earned her Certified Addictions Registered Nurse designation in 2003, she joined an elite group of nurses who possess the knowledge, skills and attributes necessary to excel in treating people with alcohol and drug dependencies. As director of patient access at the Memorial Hermann Prevention and Recovery Center (PaRC), she has the privilege of seeing both sides of the nursing profession: providing direct patient care and serving in a leadership position.
“Addiction nursing is a diverse field that is ever evolving,” Loanne says. “It requires strong medical/surgical skills, expertise in behavioral medicine and mental health nursing, and knowledge of addictive diseases to provide optimum care for patients and help them on their path to recovery. Many of our patients come in extremely intoxicated, unaware of what’s happening around them, unsure if they’re ready for treatment and not even sure they can make it to tomorrow. It’s very satisfying to see them walking down the hall two or three weeks later, talking about how they’re feeling and what they’re going to do with their lives.”
Loanne was nominated for the Excellence in Nursing Award by PaRC CEO Matt Feehery, MBA, LCDC, who wrote that the 180-bed residential alcohol and drug treatment center is “privileged to have Loanne Tran as one of its leaders. She expertly deals with some of the most difficult, complicated and complex health issues a nurse can face: people in active withdrawal due to drug and alcohol addictions. Beyond the identified patient she cares for, there are family members, friends or associates who are tired, angry, scared, distraught, embarrassed or hurting because of the challenges a person with an addiction presents. It takes a unique individual to bring together all of the people involved with the patient, get them invested in that person’s treatment and ultimately, in their recovery. That’s what Loanne does daily.”
Loanne joined the Prevention and Recovery Center staff in 2001 and prior to that, worked as a nurse at Memorial Hermann for a total of 17 years, serving in the healthcare system’s psychiatric hospital programs before joining PaRC. Her department is the front door for people seeking answers to major behavioral health problems, and at times that request for help is less than pleasant or not entirely sincere.
I have often referred to Ms. Tran as the finest example of ‘grace under pressure,’” writes Feehery in his nomination. “She is never rattled by the complexities of a case or the incoherent actions of an impaired individual, whether the presenting problem is chemical dependency, a psychiatric disorder, or a combination of the two. She has an approach that disarms anxious and difficult patients as well as family members. She exudes a confidence that is reassuring and never arrogant. She is calm in her demeanor yet firm in her diagnostic and assessment skills. Our physicians trust her implicitly to provide the most helpful information to facilitate a successful treatment outcome. Referral sources, employee assistance professionals, and managed care reviewers depend on her expertise to help guide them in making the most appropriate health care recommendations. Loanne is obviously committed to patient care and our patient satisfaction scores reflect her department's attitude and attention to detail.”
As an administrator, Loanne is directly involved in developing training modules to ensure that clinical and support staff are up to date on all aspects of admissions processes and criteria, licensure compliance, privacy practices, Joint Commission surveys and requirements, and other matters. She promotes nursing excellence and advocates for her profession through active membership in the Vietnamese American Nurses Association and the International Society of Addiction Nurses. She is a Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses (TPAPN) assessor in Houston and has played a key role in developing an assessment and evaluation program to serve impaired nurses for TPAPN, collaborating with the organization’s headquarters and with leadership in Austin.
“You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who is more courteous, compassionate, respectful and responsive than Loanne,” says Feehery. “Not only does she guide her nurses and counselors in the process of screening and assessing new patients, but she handles those duties herself, especially when patient admissions or requests for services are up. She is one of the finest nursing professionals I have encountered during my 32+-year history of working in the health care industry.”
Loanne’s strength lies in being flexible enough to respond to individual differences. “Every patient I meet with a dependency is different,” she says. “Every story I hear is different, so you have to find a unique way of supporting that person on the path to recovery. Addressing the emotional aspect of addiction is more difficult than addressing the physical issues. You hear stories of people who have come from good families and ended up in crack houses. You meet people whose spouses have left them because they couldn’t give up the bottle. An intoxicated patient may come in during the time they’re impaired, call you names and become physically violent. That does have an effect on you, and it can be very depressing. It took me years to learn how to avoid internalizing what happened to me during the day, so that I didn’t take it home with me.
She is strongly motivated by a desire to see people happy. “I want to see them be able to have a family and watch their children grow up. I want them to be productive members of society. Just to know that I can add a little bit of something to their sober life is meaningful to me. I try to incorporate this concept into my training for my staff. We are the first people they see at the center, so what we do has the power to make a difference in their lives. I believe that we can never really master addiction nursing, because every day presents a new challenge. I chose this profession because I know that this is what I’m good at, what I can excel in. I do my best every day to make a difference in the lives we touch.”
Nursing Education: Clinician
Catherine Ivash, MSN, CNS, RN-BC
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston School of Nursing
Catherine Ivash’s commitment to the profession of nursing began literally overnight, when she, as a third-year business student at The University of Texas at Austin, was pondering a major change. “I decided business wasn’t my cup of tea. Something just didn’t seem to fit, so I picked up the UT course catalog and flipped through it. I ran across the listing for the School of Nursing, and when I read the course descriptions and learned about the role of a nurse, I knew immediately that was what I wanted to do.”
Cathy’s heart was broken when she learned there was a two-year waiting list to enroll in the UT nursing program. She left Austin for Houston, where she enrolled at Houston Community College. As a student without a reliable car, she left hours in advance to catch a bus to attend clinicals, and walked a couple of miles to get to classes. When she graduated, there were few jobs available in Houston for new graduates, so she accepted a position at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB), with the intention of staying one or two years. Today, after 28 years at UTMB, she serves as a clinical educator in nursing program development.
When the Texas Medical Center News recognized the UTMB Nursing Residency Program in its May 1, 2011 edition, the publication was also recognizing Cathy’s contribution as the program’s coordinator. The program was honored as one of four in the country – and the only one in Texas – named as “consistent better performers” in the 2011 Outcomes Report from the University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of academic medical centers and their affiliated hospitals.
Charlotte A. Wisnewski, PhD, RN, BC, CDE, CNE, associate professor at UTMB and past president, Alpha Delta Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau, International writes: "This endeavor is a huge responsibility. I have had the pleasure of working with Cathy Ivash for almost six years in the Nurse Residency Program for postgraduate BSN new graduates in their first hospital position. Cathy has coordinated the program and kept it running very well during this time. Since there are currently three cohort groups, it is very time consuming and difficult to manage all three groups, keep their activities coordinated, invite guests, strategize for new ideas to engage the new graduates, and keep the faculty members knowledgeable about their roles. Cathy is a great candidate for this award and I support her nomination.”
As an educator, Cathy’s teaching mantra is “creativity with meaningful outcomes.” “She once used confetti eggs in a residency program graduation to convey the Mexican tradition of celebration and a wish for good luck,” writes Patricia Davis, DNP, RN-BC, NEA-BC, CNL, who nominated her for the Excellence in Nursing Award. “The residents bent down with large smiles to accept the breaking of eggs on their heads. Many confetti-covered heads could be seen walking through the halls on that day! Another activity used red yarn woven as a “spider’s web” between participants. The activity demonstrated the interconnectedness of the group and the institution. When one tugged, the others felt the movement and could respond. To help nurses develop a five-year professional development plan, Cathy uses artistic expression and encourages nurses to draw a vision of their future selves. Participants have narrated their growth through clinical exemplars, excerpts from blogs, and poetry.”
Cathy served as chair of the Interdisciplinary Patient Education Committee for a number of years, and is frequently asked to consult on issues regarding patient education. She developed the UTMB patient education policy and designed an interdisciplinary documentation tool that has been adopted for use throughout UTMB. Content from the tool has been converted to online fields for electronic documentation.
Cathy also oversees operational management of the Health Education Office for UTMB. As an “interim assignment” that lasted more than two years after Hurricane Ike, she managed the UTMB Life Support Education Lab, one of the busiest American Heart Association Training Centers in the state of Texas, with seven employees who serve thousands of students each year. She has led numerous work groups and initiatives and has been active in development of staff orientation programs. She also served as a chapter point person for Joint Commission preparedness and as co-chair of the Shared Governance Education Council for two years, and is an active member in continuous process improvement teams.
At a time when there were few such resources available, she developed a proposal for an online library of patient education materials. “What I’m most proud of in my years at UTMB is what I accomplished with the patient education program,” Cathy says. “It was offered to me as a project after the budget had been cut. At the time, Patient Education consisted of a room with some shelving for brochures and other material we purchased for patients, and a few things we developed here. It was in the early 1990s – still the early days of the Internet – and I had the idea that we could develop a Web site for online access. By doing so we made the materials more accessible, less expensive and higher quality. We started with 30 hard-copy fact sheets and currently have more than 700 publications available through the Internet and the UTMB intranet.”
Cathy autonomously owns her professional practice and is a role model for professional commitment. “She lives the values of UTMB with personal attention to students and co-workers as she displays integrity, compassion, and advocacy,” writes Davis in her nomination.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the Good Samaritan Foundation for providing such strong motivation to me and other nurses, and to those who want to become nurses,” Cathy says. “Nothing is done in a vacuum. Without the support of many people and my family, I couldn’t have accomplished what I’ve chosen to accomplish. I’m proud to be a nurse. If one of my children came to me in a few years and declared the choice of nursing as a profession, I would be very proud.”
Nursing Education: Faculty
Alice S. Hill, RN, PhD, FAAN
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston School of Nursing
Widely recognized as a leader in the field of nursing education and the profession of nursing, Alice S. Hill, RN, PhD, FAAN, has held the John P. McGovern Distinguished Professor in the Healing Practices of Nursing Endowed Chair in the School of Nursing since 2001. This prestigious award acknowledges her vision, leadership, and achievements in nursing.
As director of the Nursing Doctoral Program at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, Dr. Hill recruits nursing doctoral students and personally accompanies them through their educational journey as faculty, advisor, role model, and mentor. “She is a strong student advocate,” writes her nominator Yolanda Davila, PhD, RN, associate professor in the UTMB School of Nursing. “Where others might see ‘just a student,’ Dr. Hill sees a person filled with promise and potential. She consistently goes above and beyond to help doctoral students achieve success. Her positive impact on students and the deep respect and high regard in which she is held is best demonstrated in the testimonials of her students.”
UTMB doctoral nursing student Sandra McNeely, [credentials?], wrote that Dr. Hill epitomizes the Good Samaritan. “On more than one occasion, she has helped me realize my goals and aspirations for intellectual growth. For example, when I became aware of an exciting opportunity to participate in an international research institute focusing on my interest area, with academic credit toward my degree plan, Dr. Hill assisted me to earn a scholarship, making my attendance at the institute a reality! For her students, she is a nurturing mentor, a savvy guide, a wise counselor, a scholarly role model, and an ardent advocate.”
Dr. Hill is also highly respected for working alongside, advocating for, and encouraging and inspiring faculty. Known for making herself easily accessible, she takes the time to listen and respond with what is needed – resources, assistance, or encouragement. In Dr. Davila’s words, “She views faculty as a people filled with promise and potential to teach, practice, and advocate for our students, patients, ourselves and our profession as well as do scholarship and research. As faculty, we frequently experience a renewed desire and courage to expand our professional horizons. We find ourselves in possession of unknown skills, strengths, abilities, able to scale previously insurmountable barriers, and quite often exceeding our own expectations. Borrowing and adapting a line from the movie, As Good as it Gets, ‘You (Dr. Hill) make us want to be better faculty.’”
Dr. Hill and her colleagues foresaw the current nursing shortage and the need to increase the number of nursing graduates, provide them with the highest level of educational preparation and attract well-qualified nursing faculty. She became director of the highly successful UTMB Nursing Doctoral Program in 2002 and continues to be an influential force behind the development, accreditation and growth of the program. When she discovered that nurses with a strong desire for doctoral education were hampered by geographical distance, she helped develop a solution. In 2009, the on-campus Nursing Doctoral Program transitioned to an online program, making doctoral education accessible to nurses across Texas and the United States. Enrollment more than doubled during the first year and the program continues to flourish. Since the program’s inception, 47 nurses have been awarded PhD degrees from UTMB; those graduates have gone on to assume positions as deans, other administrators or faculty, nurse scientists, clinicians, and clinical nursing directors across the state and nation.
As a faculty researcher, Dr. Hill is known for what she refers to as her “work with itty bitty babies” or low birth infant feeding and growth studies. Her current research project, “Growth of Extremely Low Birth Weight and Very Low Birth Weight Infants after Hospital Discharge,” is funded by National Institute of Nursing Research.
Her university leadership awards include the UTMB School of Nursing Professionalism Award in 2009 and the Delta Alpha Sigma Theta Tau Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2006.
In 2010, she was recognized with the Visionary Leaders Award from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nurses in 2001 and received the Lifetime Achievement in Research and Education Award from the Association of Black Nursing Faculty in 2009. Dr. Hill contributes to the advancement of nurses and the profession of nursing through leadership and membership in local, state, and national nursing organizations, including an appointment in the Texas State Board of Nurse Examiners Advisory Committee on Advanced Practice and service as the appointed chair of the Research Committee of the Association of Black Nursing Faculty in Higher Education.
“I’m often asked what makes a successful nurse, and my answer is always ‘one who believes in what he or she is doing, one who has the passion for the profession and the passion for the actual job.’ Successful nurses have the ability to meet the person they’re caring for where that person is. Often that person is in the most vulnerable position they’ve ever been in. As nurses, we have the opportunity and the obligation to help our patients reach their full potential in health.”
Nursing Administration and Leadership
Linda M. Keenan, RN-BC, BSN, MPA, NMCC, CPUR
Harris County Hospital District
In England, where Linda M. Keenan, RN-BC, BSN, MPA, NMCC, CPUR, trained and worked for 10 years before emigrating to the United States, Florence Nightingale was recognized as the theorist for the nursing profession. “She was the first statistician in the profession. She studied prevention of disease and the environments that create and perpetuate disease, and she focused on removing those barriers to reach the optimal outcome,” Linda says. “So when the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) recently adopted Florence Nightingale as its theorist, it was like coming full circle for me – from a 16 year old entering nursing school to the nurse I am today, more than 30 years later, working in a close-knit community and being able to live out my mission as Florence Nightingale would have done. For me, this is an awe-inspiring experience.”
Linda, who has 32 years of nursing experience, knew she wanted to be a nurse from the age of seven. After healing following an accident that took her to the emergency room, she visited the emergency center on weekends. “I loved listening to the nurses talk. I loved the smell of antiseptic,” she says. “I loved all the smells and sounds of the hospital and decided from that day on I was going to be a nurse.” At the age of 27, she bought a one-way ticket to the United States.
Linda currently serves as administrative director of disease management in the Clinical Case Management department at the Harris County Hospital District, overseeing the work of 30 people. In his nomination essay, Jamie Mathis, MSN, RN, senor clinical nurse case manager at HCHD, wrote, “Mrs. Keenan is using her expertise to push the Harris County Hospital District into the future in healthcare. Her outstanding leadership qualities, the unvarying commitment to patients and her caring demeanor all demonstrate the traits desired in a nursing leader.”
In the two years that have passed since she joined HCHD, she has developed a reputation as a change agent, facilitating workshops, leading evidence-based protocol formation and implementing best-practice electronic healthcare record amendments to submit 13 clinic applications simultaneously for National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) designation as patient-centered medical homes. Her efforts gained the Harris County Hospital District the Physician Practice Connections-Patient Centered Medical Home designation by NCQA for all 13 clinics.
Linda currently leads seven workgroups focused on gaining recognition for HCHD as an Accountable Care Organization and has developed a gap analysis to prepare the organization for coming changes in CMS reimbursement. She assists colleagues in expanding their nursing and leadership knowledge in various ways – as a preceptor to Master of Science in Nursing students from Texas Woman’s University and a mentor to nurses at the Harris County Hospital District.
As a project champion for the Leadership Excellence Achieved through Development (LEAD) initiative, she is responsible for coaching, teaching, and mentoring aspiring HCHD leaders as well as lecturing and assisting the LEAD fellows on their assigned projects. She initiated and implemented a transition-of-care program to address the needs of high-risk, problem-prone patients, which has eased the hospital discharge transition for these patients.
She has also initiated and implemented open access for all patient educators, nurse case managers and social work case managers in HCHD’s community health centers, which allows patients the opportunity to receive same-day interventions for their needs rather than scheduling return clinic appointments. The initiative has decreased the community health center no-show rate from 50 to 10 percent.
Linda is ANCC board-certified in general nursing practice and in mental health/psychiatry. She has achieved the National Managed Care Certification Master Level and is a McKesson-certified professional utilization reviewer.
"Mrs. Keenan is also a truly caring nurse who is always focused on the needs of her patients, staff, students, and mentees,” Mathis writes. “She is a true example of an engaged nursing leader. She demonstrates strong dedication, incredible initiative, and excellent leadership qualities that are deserving of this award.”
"All of my accomplishments since I came to the District in 2009 are solely related to the great team I have working with me,” she says. “We have a wonderful, diverse set of individuals – registered nurses predominantly – who are each experienced in their own skill set and areas of certification, whether it’s patient education, diabetes education, managed care or asthma management. To all of us, nursing is so much more than a job. To be successful at nursing, I believe you have to commit your life to it. It’s an absolute privilege to serve patients and their families and to have them trust you with their care. We were all nurses first before we became specialized nurses. I believe leaders such as myself must empower nurses to do what they do best, functioning as a team and also autonomously within our scope of practice.
“This award is the culmination of everything I’ve worked for in my life. It’s the culmination of many, many years of nursing school and nursing education because it never stops when you’re a nurse,” she adds. “To anyone looking, it also means that you can do it, too.”
