Alva Flores
December 2023
Alva
Flores
,
RN
Medical Subspecialty Clinic
Southern AZ VA Health Care System
Tucson
,
AZ
United States
I’m impressed with Alva’s dedication to learning as much as she can about Cardiology. The Cardiology department and the Veterans are blessed to have her.
Alva Flores has been helping in Cardiology since March 2023. She doesn’t have a Cardiology background, previously working in Neurology. She is always interested in learning more about Cardiology. When she helps with alerts, she always looks up medications on Up-to-date so she understands why the Veteran is taking the medication.
The Cardiology nurses provide teaching to Veterans monthly, regarding a Cardiac medication called Praluent, and Alva volunteered to teach. She viewed Praluent teaching with a colleague once, and was willing to teach the next Veteran that was scheduled. I knew she had been watching videos about the medication. She even sent me a video produced by the VA that provided Praluent instructions.
I watched her teach her first patient and I was amazed at her level of knowledge regarding the medication. She gave the patient the education handout and highlighted the most important information. She had a legal pad with notes that she had written to prepare for teaching and referenced it a couple of times. I thought she wrote a couple of pages. Later that day she walked away from her desk, and I looked at her notepad. She had written over 20 pages. She watched videos in her free time on evenings and weekends to prepare to teach the Veteran. She set a timer on her phone when the medication was picked up so she would know when the medication had been at room temperature for 30 minutes.
This month, the Cardiology nurses needed to provide a Veteran with teaching on another Cardiac medication (Repatha). We don’t have any paperwork for Repatha. Alva spent many hours of her free time preparing to provide the education. She found a handout to provide the Veteran and highlighted important information. She watched videos about the medication and took notes, like she did with Praluent. The Veteran asked about the mechanism of action for the medication and she was able to tell him.
I’m impressed with Alva’s dedication to learning as much as she can about Cardiology.
The Cardiology department and the Veterans are blessed to have her.
The Cardiology nurses provide teaching to Veterans monthly, regarding a Cardiac medication called Praluent, and Alva volunteered to teach. She viewed Praluent teaching with a colleague once, and was willing to teach the next Veteran that was scheduled. I knew she had been watching videos about the medication. She even sent me a video produced by the VA that provided Praluent instructions.
I watched her teach her first patient and I was amazed at her level of knowledge regarding the medication. She gave the patient the education handout and highlighted the most important information. She had a legal pad with notes that she had written to prepare for teaching and referenced it a couple of times. I thought she wrote a couple of pages. Later that day she walked away from her desk, and I looked at her notepad. She had written over 20 pages. She watched videos in her free time on evenings and weekends to prepare to teach the Veteran. She set a timer on her phone when the medication was picked up so she would know when the medication had been at room temperature for 30 minutes.
This month, the Cardiology nurses needed to provide a Veteran with teaching on another Cardiac medication (Repatha). We don’t have any paperwork for Repatha. Alva spent many hours of her free time preparing to provide the education. She found a handout to provide the Veteran and highlighted important information. She watched videos about the medication and took notes, like she did with Praluent. The Veteran asked about the mechanism of action for the medication and she was able to tell him.
I’m impressed with Alva’s dedication to learning as much as she can about Cardiology.
The Cardiology department and the Veterans are blessed to have her.