September 2025 VUH Healthcare Heroes | Vanderbilt University Hospital Nursing

Nurse Leader of the Quarter: Megan Cyrulik, Nurse Manager - 11S - From Megan's nomination: Megan has been an incredibly involved manager. From the beginning, she has been present on the unit on both dayshift and nightshift to understand the culture and workflows. From this, she has a pulse on all patient grievances and praises for staff and ensures that all staff receive this feedback. For a specific patient care example: Megan came to Vanderbilt with prior burn experience. With her knowledge, she was able to identify areas we were excelling in with burn wound care as well as areas for opportunity. She collaborated with the CSL team who then gained interest of nurses and care partners of both dayshift and nightshift. This combination of bedside staff and leadership (spearheaded by Megan) went over the current practices and expectations of the unit. The more digging that was done, it was discovered that there was no standardization of how, when and who did wound cares (days vs nights, sizes of wound cares for hydro team vs bedside RNs, etc). As a group, these standardizations were created as drafts which were then sent for approval from the burn director for edits. Once all adjustments had been made, all staff were educated on the changes. Since the standardization for wound care occurred, the flow of wound care has been nearly seamless from the nursing side. There are clear expectations in place and now patients are consistently receiving the same care across the board. In return, patient care has improved and overall patient outcomes with less infections. Since Megan's time on the unit, she has initiated and seen through several projects like this. She is never the one at the front with the loudest voice; she is the one behind-the-scenes, working endlessly and encouraging her staff to perform at their full scope and best care. She reflects this leadership style all throughout the unit.

Nurse of the Quarter: Steven Barrett, RN - 4RW - From Steven's nomination: With her permission to share this story, our MCN RW Dietary Aide Riley Odom choked while taking a break and eating in the 4RW nutrition area on Friday, May 16th. She was totally obstructed while eating and began to knock on the wall and gesture with the sign she was choking. Steven, who was working as charge nurse that day, noticed her choking and immediately jumped into action. He began the Heimlich maneuver, which ultimately dislodged the food and saved her life. Along with the assistance of Nurse Hattie Isham, they then began monitoring Riley's vitals and calling for a tiered response to determine if she needed further care. Riley was evaluated in the Emergency Department and was ultimately cleared for discharge.