Samantha Williams

On With Life's LTC program rented it's space from Glenwood Resource Center in Glenwood, IA, which is a state run campus that served individuals with intellectual disabilities. The State of Iowa announced the closure of the campus in 2024, which meant On With Life would need to find a new location to run the LTC program. A location was acquired in Polk City IA - close to our skilled program. Due to this closure announcement the leadership team currently running the LTC program resigned. I was recruited to become the DON in this LTC program and help transition to the Polk City location. Over the summer we successfully navigated the moving 29 of our current residents to Polk City and accomplished full census of 40 beds by the end of September.

This role oversaw the Nursing Department for On With Life's Skilled unit. This is a 28 bed facility that served individuals with Brain Injuries or Neurological conditions. The average length of stay is 30-60 days and the majority of those we served did discharge home. During my time as DON we maintained a deficiency free survey. I was asked to move to On With Life's Long Term Care program to serve as the DON in January of 2023.

This role acted as the administrator on duty for off hours for the entire hospital system - ED, OB, Med/Surg, Psych, ICUs, OR, Cath Lab. Aspects of the role included: coordinating with Patient flow to optimize patient throughput, rapid response calls, codes, stroke alerts, resource to staff nurses, handle family or patient complaints, track COVID metrics, etc.

Piloted and developed the Staffing Coordination role across the 9 medical surgical units at Mercy Hospital. This role attended to the staffing needs and redistribution of team members to units that were at critical staffing levels. The role coordinated staffing plans with Unit Directors, Patient Flow, Charge Nurses, and House Supervisors.