“I feel my role is to be the individual that provides the support and the resources to my team that they need to do their job to the best of their ability—in terms of their clinical practice, being able to provide the highest quality care to the patients that we care for in the ICU, and their ability to provide whatever resources are necessary to the patients and to the patient's families and loved ones, so that they're informed… I look at my leadership [as] not about being at the top, not about being at the helm; it's about being the resource that gives people what they need.”
“These are people that you spend a huge amount of time with... It feels like a second home to me. It was difficult seeing people distressed and anxious and scared, and all you want to do is comfort them. [You don’t want] to say ‘it's going to be okay,’ because you don't know that. I didn't know that. I wasn't going to tell people that. But what I did tell people was, this is us together. We're going to get through this together. We're going to do what we need to do. There were times when I would stay until the nighttime when my night shift would come on to check in with them, make sure that they were okay. And there were times when I would be here overnight. You just do what you can. It's not easy.”
“I'm super proud of how [my team] managed through it and pulled together. One of the biggest things was the camaraderie, the way that these people were able to just push through those fears, push through the anxiety and the stress and everything, recognizing that we're all here to do one thing: that's to care for the patients, keep them safe, keep them alive, get them better, make them better. [To] speak to my team—I'm just so proud of them, and also honored to work alongside them.”
— Tim Rog
Nominated by Jon Bratsis:
“He oversees multiple nursing units and 135 members of staff, and still remains directly involved in bedside care. The Rush health system has assumed the front line of Chicago’s battle with COVID-19, and the demand for traditional forms of care have not conveniently subsided as this profound challenge landed on our medical professionals. Tim’s units have courageously led the charge in this fight while also continuing to serve the expected needs of our community.”