For the past several months, Cheryl Boone, RN, BSN has served as interim director of surgical services at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in St. Louis. She oversees services and staff in five departments, including the post anesthesia care unit (PACU), surgical services and same day surgery, endoscopy and sterile processing.
Since taking on the role, a peer writes, “patient satisfaction in the surgical departments she oversees have seen a marked increase and employee engagement has also risen to new heights.”
Boone received an SSM St. Mary’s Exceptional Service Award for individual exceptional commitment. Her commitment to the care of others is well rooted.
Growing up in St. Louis the middle child of a large family of 12 children, Boone nurtured her younger siblings like a second mother.
“It was expected that you would jump in and you did your part,” Boone said.
It was a negative experience at a clinic in St. Louis in the late 1970s as a pregnant teenager that led Boone to pursue nursing as a career – to do her part in making every patient’s experience pleasant as possible, without judgment.
“It just made me want to make an impact, regardless of whether you were insured, if you were poor – you deserved to be treated a particular way,” Boone said.
“I could just hear comments being made, ‘If that was my daughter.’ First of all, it just blew me away that people who were professional were having that kind of conversation. I didn’t feel like it was fair, and it made me not want to go back and receive care at that particular clinic.”
Boone said she was going to choose between getting prenatal care for her baby and how the health workers at the clinic made her feel.
“And I said ‘No, that’s not the right attitude to have either,’ so what I did do was follow up and continue my prenatal care somewhere else,” she said.
“But then I kind of decided, you know what? I already have sort of been doing motherly, kind of ‘taking care of people’ things all my life, and so it made me look into the path of becoming a nurse.”
She completed her prerequisite courses at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley.
“I decided I would go somewhere for nursing school where I felt like I would be focused and the people were going to be focused and I picked Missouri Baptist,” Boone said.
“There were about 90 students in the class and five of those students were African-American. I got through the first semester and when I came back, I was the only African American in the class and that blew me away. I just made a commitment and decided that it was doable and I’m going to do this.”
Boone said she graduated with her class and took her state boards and passed them on the first try. “That was probably one of my prouder moments; I know it was for my mom,” Boone said.
Boone is a Sumner High School graduate and earned a nursing diploma from Missouri Baptist School of Nursing. She earned a bachelor of science in nursing at University of Missouri – St. Louis and a master’s in nonprofit administration at Lindenwood University.
She is a member of the Council of Nurse Leaders and the Association of Operating Room Nurses. Boone is also a member of the Diversity Council at St. Mary’s Health Center, and chairs its Surgical Care Infection Prevention Committee.
Her first job in nursing was at City Hospital, where she worked for about a year just before it closed and where she met her husband, Royce Boone, who was a respiratory therapist at the hospital.
They have two children, Rashad and Brianna, five grandchildren and two stepchildren. Boone’s oldest son, Jacques Bryant is deceased.
Boone grew up attending New Hope Baptist Church in St. Louis.
Once she started working at St. Mary’s, Boone never left. Although she says the leadership doesn’t necessarily mirror the patient population or the staff, Boone speaks of commitment, support and value.
“It’s getting people to be aware of the differences, and meeting people right where they are,” Boone said.
In her previous role as director of acute care, one of two units Boone supervised became the first at the facility to achieve 99th percentile patient satisfaction scores, while both units consistently rank high in that area.
“This consistency in patient care and employee engagement has so much to do with the amazing leader that Cheryl is,” her nominator writes. “She is a great motivator and team developer. She builds tremendous partnerships between all levels of staff in her department, consistently mentoring emerging leaders and building a dedicated, loyal staff.”
Patients and staff are what her work is about.
“I just develop relationships with them and when you do that and people know you value them, you pretty much can get whatever it is accomplished – you have their buy in that you are going to do the right thing by them and by the patients that we are serving,” Boone said.
“In any position I am supervising, I’ve worked in those same roles and I understand the challenges that they face, but my expectations are still high and I try to make sure we have what we need to do the job. And if I need to role my sleeves up and get right in there with them – I will.”
