DAISY Award

Michelle Linenberger MSN Ed, RN-BC
Children's Hospital Nurse Educator

We would like to nominate Michelle Linenberger MSN Ed, RN-BC, Children's Hospital Nurse Educator, Professional Development Specialist who has served as a liaison for PICU patients in T7 MSICU Gold. We have always been designated to care for PICU patients since 1995; however, we have experienced a dramatic increase over the last couple of years. As of 2018, 40% of our patients have been PICU patients. And we are so grateful to Michelle Linenberger for supporting us with education and advocating for us to the PICU leadership and the PICU medical staff. We appreciate her passion & consistent presence in our unit – providing just in time education, alleviating our anxiety and celebrating our successes.

As an example of Michele caring:

Our unit has been caring for R for the past 2 years while he has required ICU level of care. He is an adolescent male, with a past medical history significant for global developmental delay with neuromuscular scoliosis, Chiari malformation s/p decompression, hydrocephalus s/p VP shunt with multiple revisions, now with VA shunt in place, seizure disorder, neurogenic bowel and bladder s/p vesicostomy. He required full care at home, has a trach and ventilator dependent.

While this is a familiar type of patient for PICU, his care was not familiar to our staff who were more comfortable in caring for critically ill adult patients. Michele was instrumental in the care of this patient from the onset. Michele listened to the concerns of bedside nurses Josh and Abigail. She talked to the father and reviewed the plan of care when R was struggling on the vent. She advocated for the pediatric RT to be placed in T7 MSICU Gold routinely to address RC pediatric- specific needs. She acted as a passionate liaison with the PICU attending physicians for timely bedside rounding so that the nurses could learn and be proactive with care. In addition, Michelle would round at least once a day, sometimes twice a day to make sure R had the care he needed to get him home. Michele even stayed after hours, so that she could touch base with the nightshift nurses to review some education, make sure the pediatric RT was assigned and to make sure the nightshift PICU attending was addressing the R needs in a timely manner. And R’s care became seamless and he was discharged home directly from MSICU Gold.

Because of Michele’s commitment to the excellent care of PICU patients, not only did the patient benefit – the entire MSICU Gold staff benefited. We continue to grow in our practice as we continue to take care of more and more pediatric patients and we can always count on Michele Linenberger to collaborate with us so that we can deliver the care PICU patients deserve. It has been an incredible privilege to work with someone as special as Michele who’s love for children is awe inspiring.

This past year Michelle also spoke on behalf of UC Davis Children’s Hospital as well as the Children’s Hospital Association as a subject matter expert in teaching adult care nurses how to overcome their fears and develop competency in caring for children. Children’s Hospital Today online journal, published an article regarding Michelle’s success in caring for children in an adult setting.

Submitted by:
Gina Mumper, RN, MSN, CCRN
Alex Baddley, RN, BSN, CCRN