July 18, 2014

To the UEXCEL Committee:

Caitlin Kowalski is an excellent nurse, leader, and co-worker. I have had the pleasure of working with
Caitlin for the past three years, and I have seen her excel in her many growing roles as a nurse. She has
been working consistently on her credentialing projects throughout the year, and I strongly recommend
her to credential to a Level III RN.

Caitlin consistently demonstrates exemplary professional practice. She provides compassionate,
patient-centered care to her patients and their families. She is an excellent patient advocate, and she is
able to provide holistic care that is supportive of the goals of the interdisciplinary team.

She has grown in her role as a leader significantly in the three years we have worked together. When I
first worked with Caitlin, I was an ACP and she was a new nurse. As a newer nurse, Caitlin skillfully led
small groups of nurses and CNAs. She was able to delegate tasks in non-threatening ways, and she
helped to build community between nurses and CNAs by being kind, consistent, and always willing to
lead by example. When Caitlin became a relief charge nurse, her leadership skills had more of an
opportunity to shine through. She created an environment on the unit, that even on the busiest days,
was supportive of all staff members. Today, she deftly balances the pressures of admitting and
discharging patients with supporting nurses and staff members. She successfully creates an
environment that focuses on fiscal responsibility and patient throughput, while still providing support to
staff and creating an atmosphere in which it feels safe to practice. In July 2013, Caitlin became one of
our units permanent charge nurses, and the unit benefits from her consistent leadership style. Also,
Caitlin is an active member of the Palliative Care Committee, and her transformational leadership unit
project focused on improved documentation of advanced directives. Because of Caitlins one-on-one
teaching sessions and quarterly audits, the ACE unit as seen an improvement in the completion of the
advance directive section in the admission assessment. Finally, Caitlin created a new unit guideline,
12th Floor Medicine/ACE Unit: Oral Hydration Management, which has been beneficial for nurses and
CNAs. Caitlin is a strong leader, and her transformational leadership projects were value-added to our
unit.

Throughout her time as a nurse, Caitlin has been committed to structural empowerment. Before
becoming a permanent charge nurse, she was a primary preceptor for new graduate and student nurses,
and she continues to precept new graduates and orient nurses to the relief charge role. Her structural
empowerment educational projects for credentialing included one-on-one education about how to
correctly complete the advanced directive section, an educational poster introducing the unit to her
sleep project pre-intervention data, and a clinical article review session focused on improved sleep for
patients. Caitlin is consistently assessing and reassessing staff for gains from unit education, and she is
an advocate for continuing education for staff members.

Finally, Caitlins New Knowledge, Innovations, and Improvements project to improve reported sleep of
elderly patients was successful and value-added. Caitlin educated staff about her sleep project through
poster presentations at staff meetings. She also gave updates and reminders throughout the project via
email. The education she provided to staff increased awareness of the importance of sleep in the elderly
population, and encouraged staff to be aware of nighttime noise. The outcomes of her project were
positive. There was an improvement in how patients rated the quality of their sleep from the night
before; improved RN documentation of patient sleep in EPIC; and a decrease in the amount of sounds
patients reported as interfering with their sleep. Now, night-shift staff immediately turn down the lights
at 2200, phones are turned down, and nurses advocate for non-essential medications to not be
scheduled overnight. It truly feels like the unit has had a change in culture because of Caitlins project.

Caitlin is an asset to our unit, and very deserving of credentialing to a Level III RN. She provides
exemplary care, leads skillfully, provides value-added education, and is committed to improving the
quality of care provided to our patients. I wholeheartedly recommend her to credential to a Level III RN.

Sincerely,



Melissa Morris, RN BSN
ACE Medicine
University of Colorado Hospital