A nurse at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center has been nationally recognized with HealthImpact’s DAISY Nurse Leadership Award for advancing compassionate care in policy.
Megan Roerbiecki, assistant nurse manager of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center’s Acute Mental Health Unit, received the award at the American Nursing Leadership Organization National Advocacy Day Conference in Washington, D.C., on June 4 for her work leading a multidisciplinary team to revise the Milwaukee VA’s alcohol withdrawal symptom management policy while she was the unit’s clinical nurse leader.
“It’s such an honor and I’m so surprised,” Roelbiecki said. “I know the DAISY Award is such an important award. It means a lot to me and I’m so grateful to have been nominated.”
The DAISY Awards is an awards program that celebrates and recognizes nurses through nominations from patients, families and colleagues. In 2020, the DAISY Foundation partnered with HealthImpact to create an award that recognizes nurses who promote compassionate care in policy.
Roerbiecki began working at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center as a clinical nurse lead for acute mental health in January 2020. Prior to that, nurses on the unit had questions about the testing and treatment policy based on the Clinical Laboratory Alcohol Withdrawal Assessment Scale-Revised, one of the most common ways to assess alcohol withdrawal. Roerbiecki was brought in to help review and revise the policy, and she assembled a support team that included a nurse scientist, a pharmacy resident, a psychiatrist, and a mental health registered nurse.
“We’ve reached out to other VAs and other local hospitals and have revised and updated our policies based on current best practices and standards,” Roerbiecki said.
Once the policy was revised, it needed to be implemented in a way that would educate and inspire the nurses providing treatment. Roelbiecki worked with Tina Smith, Simulation Center Program Manager at the Milwaukee VA, to create an interactive, simulation-based escape room game to teach the treatment protocol.
As more nurses experienced the escape game, word spread about its innovation and effectiveness, so Lindsey Ladell, program manager for High Integrity Organizations, asked Lorbiecki and Smith to submit the escape game for a local HeRO Awards, which recognizes outstanding projects and those who uphold the principles of High Integrity Organizations.
The escape game represented VISN 12 at the national level in HeRO activities and was named the national winner in the Clinical Team category in 2022. The escape game has also been presented at multiple conferences and has since been adopted by the Veterans Health Administration’s Simulation Learning, Evaluation, Assessment and Research Network, a program that is developing a growing number of curricula and best practices to improve healthcare for our nation’s veterans.
“It’s really amazing that what started as a small project at 3C has now spread to other VAs with protocols and escape games being implemented,” Roelbiecki says. “It’s something we never expected.”
Once the policy was fully implemented, mental health registered nurses were supportive of the policy change because they had been involved in the process early on. The revised instruction set enhanced individualized care for veterans, and no adverse events were recorded at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center following the implementation of the policy.
Roelbiecki is excited that her team’s research will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Addictions Nursing, adding that without her team’s help and support, she would not have been able to create such an impactful protocol and publish this study.
“Networking and making connections is so important as it moves the project forward and helps in the future,” Roelbiecki said, “Without the collaboration of everyone involved, including 3C nurse Tina Smith and Dr. Hagle, who was the nurse scientist at the time, the policy and escape game would not be what it is today.”
Tandria Williams, associate director of patient care services at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, made the same point in her recommendation for Roerbiecki.
“This entire project represents an extraordinary effort by the mental health and research nursing team to enhance patient and staff safety and nursing practice through policy development,” Williams wrote.
Roelbiecki said her time and work at the Milwaukee VA was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.
“There are so many opportunities for growth, advancement and learning, which is so important,” she said. “It’s amazing how many opportunities there are for you at VA. If you want to do something new or work on a project, VA will do everything they can to help you achieve that goal. If you’re a lifelong learner and want to make a difference in the lives of veterans, this is a great place to work.”
