Rachael Sullens
I am nominating Rachael for the DAISY Award. I would like to quote and paraphrase from a letter I received from a patient regarding Rachael's care. "I am writing to thank you for having the good sense to hire Rachael as one of your nurses. I have never had such complete and satisfying care as I had in the hands of Rachael. I was in a great deal of pain after surgery, and I was a bit of a pest. Rachael was unfazed; she cared for me with such professional cheer that I began to think of her as an angel of mercy. She answered my calls for help immediately, educated me frankly and clearly about options for managing the pain and then returned quickly with help. Frequently thereafter, she would check in to see how I was doing. I saw a sign that outlined what Memorial Hospital expects of its nursing staff and, over the next hours, I was able to experience the very best of each of those categories outlined on that sign by all of nursing, but most poignantly by Rachael." This is a surgical unit and Rachael works on the evening shift. I have learned from Rachael that, the pm shift is a crucial time in the recovery of our patients. Rachael on more than one occasion has called surgeons to say that the patient ‘does not look right’. On two occasions, she called the same surgeon and the result was that the patient needed to return to surgery on that very shift. The most recent time this occurred, the doctor told me the next day that, when Rachael says a patient doesn’t look right, he does not question her judgment, but makes a plan to return to the hospital to look and see. On this particular day, the patient did return to surgery. I was with Rachael when she made her first round on this patient at the beginning of the shift. She did a quick assessment and said, “I had better call the doctor”. The doctor said he immediately called OR to ask for a room. This is an example of the confidence he has in Rachael's assessments.
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