Georgia Salazar didn’t set out to be a leader. A technical education course in high school helped her find her calling as a nurse, but it took her a while to find her perfect fit.

Working in long-term acute care (LTAC) facilities, often caring for patients after a stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), opened her eyes to the world of critical care and how she could make an impact on patients’ lives before they ever reached an LTAC.

She made the switch to critical care nursing, and it was like a puzzle falling into place. Not everyone can thrive in the high-stress environment of the ICU, but for Salazar, MSN, RN, CCRN, it’s where she flourishes.

“It just fit. It was always what I was meant to do,” she says. “I like caring for people, but also the critical thinking and quick decisions.”

She has been part of the Arnett team for nine years, and two years ago was promoted to manager.

Despite not setting out to be in a leadership position, today she is the clinical operations manager for the Arnett Hospital ICU, Progressive Care Unit (PCU), Dialysis and Central Monitor Station.

She says the ICU and PCU are full of positive examples of people “blooming where they’re planted,” just like herself.

Although her days are often busy building staffing plans, monitoring patient flow and working on process improvement, she still makes it a priority to round on her teams and jump in to answer a call light whenever she can.

She takes her role as a leader seriously and knows that even though she doesn’t get to provide direct patient care as much as she used to, her work still has an important impact.

“If I take good care of my nurses, they’ll take good care of our patients,” she says.

(It’s evident that philosophy holds up. As the interview for this article was underway, a patient passing by Salazar’s office after being discharged from a stay in the ICU post- surgery stopped to say to her: “Your staff is amazing. It’s unreal.”)