|
September DAISY winner
Trish Jones, CTICU
 Trish Jones,
center, is honored with the September DAISY award. She is congratulated
by the CTICU team.
Her nomination read in part:
Trish is one of those nurses who uses critical thinking in ther
everyday work and even in a crisis such as one we experienced with a
patient on a Heartmate. A Heartmate is a ventricular assist device that
does the work of the left ventricle for patients who are in heart
failure and waiting a heart transplant. The CTICU received a phone call
from a nurse at anoher hospital's emergency room. One of our Heartmate
patients's went to that hospital and demanded that they call us because
the batteries of his Heartmate had 10 minutes left and then it would
die and not pump his blood. Trish fielded the call from the ER nurse
and aksed her to send the patient to ART's chest pain center. Trish
informed the chest pain center of what was about to happen and borrowed
batteries from another Heartmate patient that happened to be
on our step down unit. In the midst of all the chaos, she paged the
ventricular assist device (VAD) coordinator to inform her of the
happenings. Trish waited down by the ambulance bay to meet the patient.
When the ambulance doors opened, our patient was still alive, but the
VADs batteries were so low that it could not even produce an alarm.
Trish immediately switched him to the borrowed batteries and took him
to the chest pain center. If it wasn’t for Trish’s knowledge and
problem solving that patient’s outcome may have been dire.”
—Nominated by Kristin Geisler
Employees
of
the Month
Jennifer
Pitassi, Physical Therapy
 Jennifer
Pitassi
“I want to recognize Jennifer Pitassi for a job very well done. She
went out of her way to make a mother feel more comfortable and educated
about her situation. This involves a baby that was born with several
anomalies. Jennifer was the support to this mom, visiting her daily and
doing physical therapy with the baby and teaching the mom ways to give
the baby the physical touch and gentle exercises he needed. Jennifer
also designed a foam pad for the baby since he was waiting and
scheduled for cardiac surgery and had a back lesion that could not
tolerate any pressure at all. This mat alleviated all the pressure from
the back while the child successfully underwent some intensive
surgeries. The mom continued to perform all the techniques that
Jennifer encourages so that her child would continue to develop while
recovering. He is now healthy and happy.”
—Nominated
by Stephanie Kelleher
Sheri
Stewart, Pediatrics Education, Clinical Resource
 Sheri Stewart
“Sheri continues to expand her role into bereavement and perinatal
services as well as palliative care and pain management. While this is
a difficult topic for staff members to discuss, Sheri continues to work
with staff and physicians to help better serve our patients and
families. Comments from her peers; Sheri’s honesty and dedication has
created an environment among staff, physicians, and parents where ideas
and concerns can be communicated in a productive manner, Sheri should
be commended on addressing a difficult topic of palliative care. Sheri
is supportive and available to the staff during stressful and emotional
deaths. She has even helped many families obtain free burial services
if they did not have the resources needed. She does an amazing job.”
—Nominated by Sonja
Muckenfuss
Friday, Oct. 15, 2010
|
‘Making
a
difference every day’