Yesterday at the lab, the charge nurse on 15W, J was going to have a full list. We have been working with the administration on having a nursing student assist charge nurses who have a patient list - doing their scope of practice at whatever level but alleviating the charge from some of the burdens, like answering lights, medications, and some assessments.

Initially, J was leery of having a student, worried that he would have to "watch" over Annalisa. Then Annalisa showed that she was organized, caring, and willing to work. She did a majority of the q2h vital signs on all 3 of his assigned patients, I assisted her in giving the meds, doing a very complex dressing change on an arm on an accident victim. She was so careful not to hurt the patient and the patient appreciated her efforts to be gentle on a painful wound. She was on top of the meds, answered the call lights.

While this is expected of our students, Annalisa went above and beyond to help a charge nurse on a unit not assigned to her, showing her ability to time manage. When I would return to the unit, J was at the charge nurse desk because he told me that Annalisa was able to help with his patients. While they did get someone halfway through the shift to cover J's list, by then Annalisa had done the meds, daily dressing changes, restarted an infiltrated IV, and charted an assessment. At the end of the shift, J thanked me for giving him such as "strong" student to help with patient care and meds. He was very happy to have the help that day.