Cindy Smith

First nomination: 

           Cindy was working night shift.  She had a patient several shifts before.  Cindy is one of our newest RN’s.  She recognized immediately the patient had deteriorated and called the neurosurgeon.  The patient had developed and abscess pressing on his spinal column and lost movement in his legs and was incontinent of bowel/bladder.  She placed the call and by 11pm the patient was on his way for emergency intervention in the OR.  Cindy is like a sponge and wants to soak everything in and learn.  For a new RN to have such great assessment skills and act is great!  She completely advocated for the patient since another MD from a specialty just assessed the patient and did not feel there was an urgent issue.  Cindy exemplifies what nursing is about!

Second nomination:

            As a charge nurse, I reply heavily on my nurses’ assessment skills at times when I am busy and can’t always be involved in every situation on a very busy surgical unit.  Cindy worked one particular night with me and was assigned a patient she had taken care of earlier in the week.  After getting report on this particular patient, she went in to assess him.  She is a new graduate nurse and has not been on her own more than a year.  She noted a motor deficit in her assessment and even though physicians were notified of the findings on the previous shift, she took initiative to re-notify the neurosurgeon of her findings and that something was not right.  He came in 20 minutes later and took the patient to surgery that night with a spinal abscess.  She acted independently using her intuition as a new nurse which is rare as a new graduate nurse and advocated for the patient so that he was seen right away by the physician.  Cindy is always professional and caring with her patients and well liked by her peers.  This is why I feel it would be nice to recognize her for her excellence.