Navigating Through Trauma Sets Nurses Apart

Jean Schott, BSN, RN, has never met a stranger, which is a superpower if you care for patients and families. And when you’re caring for them on their worst days, you’d better be able to connect. This is what Jean does every day; she is a trauma nurse in the Specialty Resource Unit (SRU), so each shift for her involves seeing a patient and family through their worst nightmare. She earns their trust to get to know them better and puts them at ease or distracts them for a moment from being in a hospital. The skill with which she is able to do this earned her the 2023 B. Robison-Sporck Award, one of the annual Cincinnati Children’s honors given to an outstanding clinical nurse during Nurses Week.

“Some nurses seem to have been made just for this, to care for others on their worst days and bring a sense of peace, comfort and understanding while saving lives,” said Patient Services Assistant Vice President Rachel Wilson, DNP, RN, at the award ceremony. “They make it look as easy as breathing to live through others’ traumas every single day and not become hard towards the world—to become even more compassionate, if that's possible, and change lives forever.”

Jean’s tendency to forge bonds—with patients, families, and her teammates—likely comes from her willingness to listen to others. “We all have a story,” she said. “The past few years have been hard on all of us. We all have ups and downs in life, but we can choose how our story goes and what we can do to improve our story. So, if you ever need a friend or someone to listen to your story, I’m here for you.”

Click here to see the nominees for the 2023 B. Robison-Sporck Award.

Margot Daugherty, MSN, MEd, RN, Trauma Program manager, joined Cincinnati Children’s more than 15 years ago to take on a new role as a nurse educator for our Level 1 pediatric trauma program. She quickly took on the challenge of creating a trauma core nursing team, a first for both our health system and for the United States. In addition to helping lead that team through a culture change, she developed the education to ensure that nurses were uniquely prepared to care for trauma patients during their critical initial assessment. This is more than some individuals do in an entire career, but Margot didn’t stop there. She went on to help develop a simulation program to improve relationships and communication within the multidisciplinary trauma team to ensure the safest and best outcome for our patients.

Through the years, both the nursing trauma program and the multidisciplinary trauma team simulation have been adopted across the country and highlighted by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma as an exemplar practice. Margot collaborates with adult care facilities to educate on trauma and the pediatric population, and she and the trauma service team have partnered with hospitals around the world that are looking to create pediatric trauma centers like Cincinnati Children’s.

Thanks to Margot’s leadership, many former members of this team have developed into leaders themselves. The opportunity to serve on this team is a sought-after honor for nurses.

Her colleagues say Margot is knowledgeable yet humble, positive yet realistic, expecting yet supportive. She always has teammates at her office door asking for feedback on their performance or to review a hard case together. For her remarkable and impactful leadership, she was recognized with the 2023 Susan R. Allen Leadership Award.

In true leader form, Margot credited the program’s success to her teammates. “You make it easy for me because you’re so dedicated and passionate to the commitment of taking care of our children every day,” she said at the award ceremony.

Click here to see the nominees for the 2023 Susan R. Allen Leadership Award.