Values in Action Spirit Award Recipient for July – Chay Crosser

An employee since 1993, Chay Crosser was selected as the Western Maryland Health System’s Values in Action Spirit Award recipient for the month of July. Chay is a nurse in the Dialysis Unit at Memorial. She began her career on the 2 South/Orthopedic Unit at Memorial as a nursing assistant while attending school. After earning her nursing degree, she continued to work on 2 South as an RN for the next six years, before joining the Dialysis Unit in 1999. Chay was recently promoted to the new position of WMHS Peritoneal Dialysis Coordinator and completed training for her certification in peritoneal dialysis. In addition to her role as a nurse, she will coordinate patient education and peritoneal dialysis services for the health system.

Chay works as part of a cohesive team that treats and cares for 90 chronic dialysis patients, three times a week. Hemodialysis patients come to the unit to have their blood cleansed and to remove the fluid that their kidneys are unable to handle. The staff members in the unit, which includes nurses, dialysis techs, unit assistants and care coordinators, develop a very close relationship with their patients and they work together as a group to create a comfortable setting for treatment.

Chay is an outstanding nurse and employee who is known for being a hard worker and very dependable resource for her unit. Co-workers describe her as personable, considerate, reliable and conscientious. She is great role model for newer nurses and she sets a genuine example of service excellence every day. Chay was actually nominated for recognition by the mother of one of her dialysis patients who eventually had a kidney transplant.

She called her one of the best nurses in the unit and singled her out for her compassion as well as her thoughtful and kind relationship with her patients and caregivers. Chay is a great problem solver and advocate for patients and their families, often going above and beyond the call of duty to help out where she can. She frequently helps make arrangements for patient's appointments and works to get things moving on the details involved in planning for additional care.

"I find my work in dialysis to be very rewarding," says Chay. "For us to be able to help our patients and actually see them walk out of here and go back home is really very gratifying." She says knowing that without dialysis, many of our patients would not be alive, is a sobering responsibility that no one in her unit takes lightly.

Chay and her husband, Scott, reside in Cumberland and have been married for 12 years. They are the parents of two children – Tyler, 10, who will be in middle school at Bishop Walsh, and Cayla, 4, a pre-kindergarten student at Northeast Elementary this coming year. Away from work, the Crossers enjoy spending time with their families, especially Chay's parents (Butch and Nick Cross) who live next door. When they are not following Tyler's sporting activities like karate, soccer and baseball, they can be found relaxing in their new backyard pool that was put in by Chay’s father. They also enjoy family vacations to places like Myrtle Beach and Nags Head, as well as a recent trip to Disney World.

Chay just completed the health system's Front Line Nursing Leadership program and was one of the team of WMHS nurses who volunteered their time to provide first aid services at Canal/Railfest in July.

Congratulations, Chay!