Expanding Our Reach: New Medical Center, More Nurses
May 6 - 12 is National Nurses Week. From The American Nurses Association: "The American Nurses Association is celebrating National Nurses Week 2024 May 6 - May 12, and throughout May. This year's theme, ‘Nurses Make the Difference,’ honors the incredible nurses who embody the spirit of compassion and care in every health care setting.
Join us in recognizing the invaluable contributions of nurses worldwide. Whether you're a health care professional, a patient, or simply someone who appreciates nurses' dedication, this is your chance to express gratitude and support for their capability and fortitude. Let’s come together to celebrate Nurses Week 2024 and show our appreciation for these extraordinary professionals!"
By Heather Duge
Since the beginning of 2023, Sheralyn Hartline, DNP, RN, CNEP, RNC-NIC, and Stefanie Tanner, MSN, RN, BCEN, have shifted into leadership roles as part of the opening of Cook Children’s second Medical Center in Prosper, Texas. Both nurses described opening a new facility as a unique experience – one that has challenged them and allowed them to think outside the box.
“We are here to guide the ship, but the staff took ownership of our processes and ultimately provided the safest, quality care for our patients,” Sheralyn said. 
Stefanie said it has been a year of robust learning.
“The community, market and population are very different in Prosper so it’s not just copying and pasting what is being done at the Fort Worth campus,” Stefanie said.
Providing the highest quality care and a one-of-a-kind experience is always at the top of their minds as they know people in Prosper have many options to choose from when looking at hospitals.
“As we enter new territory, it has been increasingly important to be involved in community events and build relationships with leaders in the region,” Sheralyn said.
Sheralyn, assistant vice president for Nursing and Patient Care, and Stefanie, director of Nursing and Patient Care, worked to create and implement processes to improve practices for 200 nurses across multiple departments at the Prosper campus.
“Our teams refined what is working well,” Sheralyn said. “We also found processes that we needed to take back to the drawing board."
One of the projects spearheaded by Morgan Cotton, Clinical Risk/Quality Improvement coordinator and Amanda Pulley, manager of Laboratory Operations, is the Emergency Department and Lab Specimen Integrity Project. The interdisciplinary team worked together to provide solutions for keeping specimen integrity.
Another project led by frontline staff called Difficult IV Access (DIVA) involved collaboration with child life specialists, Advanced Care Technicians and nurses to improve the process for IV placement and infiltrations. Now, a nurse from the DIVA team who is trained to place IVs in patients with difficult access can be called at any time.
Sheralyn and Stefanie also have supported many educational opportunities on the Prosper campus such as the emergency nurse pediatric course, the trauma nursing core course and crisis prevention intervention, largely driven by clinical practice and advanced education specialist Lucinda Berent.
“It’s a huge plus for staff if they don’t have to travel to Fort Worth or elsewhere to get certifications,” Sheralyn said.
Previously at Cook Children's Medical Center - Fort Worth, Stefanie served in the Emergency Department and Sheralyn led the Level IV NICU. Their different perspectives complement each other well. The dynamic duo communicates with each other from the moment they wake up until going to bed.
“I am a thinker and Sheralyn is a feeler,” Stefanie said. “We are both very outgoing and truly love our jobs. It’s busy and some days are 10 to 14 hours, but when I’m collaborating with Sheralyn, it doesn’t feel like work. I feel like this is what I get to do every day and I’m lucky to get paid for it.”
Sheralyn agrees and says she is blessed to be able to go to a job and do what she loves all day. Her passion for our organization’s Promise is reflected in all that has been accomplished since the opening of the Prosper facility.
“We are so proud of the culture that the team has created in Prosper while using our Promise as the guiding compass,” Sheralyn said.
About Cook Children’s
Cook Children’s is more than a health care system: we strive to be an extension of your family, growing with your child from their first steps to adulthood. By collaborating to deliver on our Promise—to improve the well-being of every child in our care and our communities, we connect the dots for our patients. Between primary and specialty. Between home and medical home. Between short-term care and long-term health.
Based in Fort Worth, Texas, we’re 8,000+ dedicated team members strong, passionately caring for over 1.5 million patient encounters each year. Our integrated, not-for-profit organization spans two medical centers (including our new, state-of-the-art location in Prosper), two surgery centers, a physician network, home health services and a health plan. It also includes Child Study Center at Cook Children's, Cook Children's Health Services Inc., and Cook Children's Health Foundation.
And our impact extends beyond the borders of Texas. We proudly treat children from virtually every state in the nation and 32 countries. By seeing the world through the eyes of children and their families from all backgrounds, we’re able to shape health care suited to them: connected by kindness, imagination and respect—with an extra dose of magical wonder.
Discover more at cookchildrens.org.
