The winner of the 2024 Award of Excellence in Hospice is Amanda Justice, RN, BSN, Nursing Supervisor, Nationwide Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care!
The Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice awards program recognizes individuals for their exemplary service and care in the home care and hospice field. Additionally, OCHCH awards special recognition to allies in the legislature that support a patient’s right to receive care in the comfort of their home. Nominations for future awards can be submitted at this link.
The Award of Excellence recognizes a licensed professional who is outstanding in his/her field. This nominee must have at least three years of experience in home care or hospice patient care (past or present position) and must be currently employed by a member agency. Nominations may include personnel currently in administrative or supervisory positions. Awards are given to one individual in Home Health, and one in Hospice.
Amanda has been nursing supervisor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital hospice and palliative care for just under two years and a pediatric nurse on the team for seven. Her role is to lead our nursing team in all aspects of care for 115 children and young adults in a 9-county Central Ohio region. Their conditions range from cardiac birth defects, cancer, Trisomy 13, and many, many other rare and not-as-rare conditions. Amanda is expected to train and guide her nurses regardless of diagnosis, which is no small feat in pediatric hospice and palliative care!
Amanda is a proud and busy wife and mom of four teenagers and a young adult. Her full-time work at Nationwide Children’s hospice and palliative care was incredibly challenging in the last year. In her first year as supervisor, our program experienced a rare turnover challenge, taking Amanda out of her new role as supervisor and back out to the field seeing many patients and taking a lot of on-call shifts. When our leadership team met to discuss how we would weather this storm, Amanda’s goal was to ensure none of our patients had to be discharged from our care or had to miss a nursing visit due to staffing. Incredibly, she made it happen. All the while, she worked hard to recruit and hire a new nursing team and onboard them. As the only pediatric hospice and palliative care program in our 9-county region, her diligence was critical during this challenging time for our program. Amanda stepping up, doing the right thing, even canceling a vacation to meet patient care needs, is something she deserves recognition for.
Amanda is known for high energy, big enthusiasm, and an always-positive approach to life. She is deeply committed, as are all of the caregivers in this room, to putting patients at the center of everything she does. Despite the many challenges she faced this last year as anew supervisor, she did it all with a positive outlook, making her accomplishments even more incredible.
Amanda’s manager, Laura, wasn’t sure about hiring her 8 years ago. She was a relatively new nurse with a focus in adult care; learning this pediatric hospice role would be a big stretch. Amanda has proven time and again over the years that Laura taking a chance on hiring her was a smart decision, but her absolutely outstanding diligence and “can do” attitude this last year proved that ten-fold! Congratulations, Amanda!
Nominated by Laura Knaur, MSW, LISW-S
Hospice and Palliative Care Manager, Nationwide Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care
