On the floor, Angela is known for her excellent organization and communication skills. She asks clarifying questions (without blame or recrimination) and thinks deeply and critically about underlying conditions patients may have. Often, she realizes something is needed before anyone else - and is already on her way to help before she can be asked.
Some time ago, I had a patient who delivered a stillborn baby. Angela had been her nurse two days in a row and made a deep connection with this patient and her partner. When it came time for the patient to pass her baby off to the funeral home at discharge, the patient asked if Angela could come over and help her say goodbye. I found Angela in the breakroom on her lunch, and she immediately jumped up to come over. She spent the rest of her lunch break sitting next to the patient on the bed, speaking softly to her about her beautiful baby and providing much-needed comfort in an unimaginable moment of heartbreak as she handed her baby to the funeral director. Angela went above and beyond for this patient, and it made all the difference for her as she had to say goodbye.
Even when Angela's own assignment is heavy, she is extraordinarily helpful in making sure whatever people need is taken care of - whether that's a break or an extra set of hands in an emergency. In a complicated delivery, in which Angela's patient had to go to the operating room for a repair, a nurse who had helped out shared with me that Angela gave her great, positive feedback afterward helping her grow in her skills as well as her confidence.
Behind the scenes, Angela is involved in improving the unit in an astonishing number of ways. She spent many months putting together a hospital-sponsored class so that newer nurses could prepare for and take their RNC exams. While she worked on this, her own two-year mark passed and she took the test on her own, but she persisted in setting up the class so we could improve the knowledge and certification rates on our unit. She serves on the Magnet® Committee and has created fun ways to engage in Magnet® activities. As if that were not enough, she recently started working with the self-scheduling task force to improve our staffing. Finally, she looks for small projects around the unit where she can create procedures to make things clearer for everyone. She noticed it could be hard to keep various test swabs and tubes straight for labs, so she made a guide that all nurses can now use clarifying which tubes to use in which circumstance.