Emily Kitchens, Grady Health System

Emily Kitchens’ people skills make her well-suited for her role in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital.

She works with heart patients who are recovering from surgery and with family members who are often anxious about the process. Kitchens starts her shift by explaining the day’s health plan and providing all the information they need.

“It helps people feel heard and encouraged. I think so much of the personal part of nursing is just as important as the medical side,” said Kitchens, a 2026 Nurse Excellence Award winner.

Kitchens, who was presented the award Thursday during a ceremony at Curate Event Space, is known for her bedside manner and dedication to her patients and colleagues.

“Even under pressure, she never loses focus on what matters most: safe, high-quality patient care and a supportive team environment,” nurse educator Kathy Peavy wrote in nominating Kitchens for her award.

Peavy said Kitchens “sees the person behind the diagnosis, and takes the time to understand their physical needs, fears, concerns and emotions.”

Grady’s cardiovascular ICU recently shifted from using nonlicensed assistive personnel to a resource-nurse model, which allows one nurse to float and help with the most critical patients and needs.

Kitchens embraced the change with enthusiasm and grace, Peavy said.

“Nursing and being at the bedside is difficult, and sometimes you find you can’t get all your tasks done and need more hands,” Kitchens said. “They created this model to help fill in the gaps.”

Kitchens developed a strategy to keep the resource nurse from being pulled in all directions. She would explain the day’s priority of helping the most critical patients but would circle back to assist colleagues when available.

This type of compassionate communication is now part of the unit’s daily “shift huddle,” so everyone knows the resource nurse’s priorities and can plan accordingly.

“Her efforts turned a difficult transition into a learning opportunity for the entire team, improving workflow, communication, patient outcomes and teamwork,” Peavy wrote.

A career in nursing was a natural fit for Kitchens. It runs in the family. Her mother was a nurse who also worked in an ICU. She retired two years ago and moved to Atlanta.

Kitchens also has a sister who works as a pediatric ICU nurse at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

The 33-year-old grew up in Maryland, in the Washington, D.C., area, and then went to college at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. During the summers, she worked as a certified nursing assistant at a hospital.

“I loved the aspect of connecting with people and the critical thinking aspect of it,” she said of nursing. “I’ve always been a relational person, and I wanted that to be something that I had in a career.”

After spending 2015 to 2017 as an oncology nurse at a Baltimore hospital, she moved to Atlanta to work at Grady, where her career continued to progress. She enjoys working in critical care and has experience across different ICU specialties, including neuro, burns, cardiac and oncology.