Jody Morris Is Methodist’s Latest DAISY Nurse Leader Award Recipient

It was a moment that Methodist Women’s Hospital emergency core nurse Amy Shostak, BSN, RN, will never forget.

“I was having just an off week,” she said. “I had family stuff going on, I was putting in a lot of overtime, the emergency department was full, and difficult cases kept coming in. Just a really hard week.”

That’s when her supervisor, Jody Morris, MSN, RN-BC, CEN, emergency team leader at Methodist Women’s Hospital, pulled Shostak into her office.

“She could tell something was off,” Shostak said. “She basically just sat me down and said, ‘Tell me what’s actually going on. You don’t have to sugarcoat anything – be real.’ I started crying. She gave me a hug and said, ‘I’m taking the rest of your shift. You go home and get a little extra down time.’”

According to Morris, being a leader in health care is just as much about taking care of your employees as it is your patients.

“It’s all about understanding that work isn’t everything,” Morris said. “Especially right now. A lot of people have spouses who’ve lost their jobs – they’re financially struggling. And if you don’t sit down and talk with them, you don’t learn those types of things. You don’t learn about the areas in which you might be able to help. When you’re happy at work, it kind of spills over into your personal life. And when you’re happy at home, it spills into your work life. So, if I can do a small thing to make their personal or professional lives a little better, why not?”

Morris, who began her nursing career in critical care at Methodist Hospital in 2000, said patient care is still in her blood.

“Wherever I’m needed is where I go,” she said. “If that means checking on a COVID patient, giving meds to another patient or working on patient call-backs, I’m there.”

A former hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy, Morris is convinced that an all-hands-on-deck approach is the only approach in health care – especially in emergency medicine.

“There is no job too big or too small for anyone,” she said. “We all pitch in during times of crisis.”

“I’ve worked for several other hospitals, and I can say without any hesitation that she is just the best nurse leader that I’ve ever had,” Shostak said after recently nominating Morris for The DAISY Nurse Leader Award – a national honor that recognizes nursing professionals for creating a compassionate environment for patients and staff.

Humbled by the award, Morris said her success is nothing short of a testament to the efforts of everyone she leads.