Morgan Boyer Nomination Letter

It is with great pleasure that I nominate Morgan Boyer for Year of the Nurse and Midwife on behalf of the Penn State Health Stroke team. Morgan has an extensive background in Neuroscience nursing and has worked in a variety of roles throughout her career. She has experience in Neurocritical care, Neurointerventional radiology nursing, telestroke coordinator, to now stroke coordinator. Approximately 6 months before the pandemic, Morgan had just recently transitioned into her current role as stroke coordinator at Penn State St Joe’s Reading, a community hospital in Reading, PA. Although she was not new to the role as a stroke coordinator, she was new to this particular institution. Since the hospital’s stroke volume does not support a full time stroke coordinator, she was also give the role of sepsis coordinator. Morgan did not have previous experience in this, but was up for the challenge and was ambitiously learning the role of sepsis coordinator as well. When COVID started impacting central Pennsylvania, her smaller community hospital became limited in resources and staffing-- and just like many around the country started utilizing additional spaces and expanding ICU beds in those areas to meet the capacity needs. When the strain became too much for the staff and the COVID volume was at its peak, Morgan was looked to for assisting with the staffing needs. She hadn’t been at the bedside in a number of years, but it didn’t take her long to complete the necessary trainings and competencies and head back into the bedside during this critical time in need. Morgan started picking up night shifts in the COVID ICU since that shift had the biggest staffing need. While Morgan was working night shift for several weeks in the COVID ICU, the demands of the stroke and sepsis programs did not stop. Morgan would put in the additional hours during the day to help maintain the programs. Throughout this trying time, Morgan continued to demonstrate her incredible work ethic. Morgan embodies what it means to be a team player. From an “outsider perspective” her stroke and sepsis programs did not flounder during her time away from those roles (although she may not agree), and she did a great job managing all the roles despite the challenge and obstacles this must have created. Throughout it all, the program continued to maintain high performing stroke quality metrics, the processes and workflows remained strong, and she even transitioned staff to a new telemedicine platform—all while continuing to work nights on the COVID unit. Our stroke team was in awe of her. We could not imagine trying to effectively run a stroke program, learn the world of sepsis, and go back to the bedside after years to care for COVID ICU patients. To Morgan though, it was a no-brainer—she never lets any circumstance get in her way, apparently that even applies to pandemics! She’s extremely passionate about stroke patient care and never missed a beat. She went about business “as usual”, smiling with her bubbly attitude—humbling thinking that everyone would do what she did. However, we know that this was extraordinary work that must have been mentally and physically exhausting. We cannot imagine a better way to honor and thank Morgan for her commitment to stroke care by presenting her with ANVC’s Year of the Nurse award.

Thank you,

Alicia Richardson, MSN, RN, ACCNS-AG, ANVP-BC, ASC-BC