On Friday night I was working as Cardiac Access Coordinator, we were receiving a post cardiac arrest patient from the ED and Ashley was to be his nurse. The patient was to undergo Therapeutic Hypothermia and would require 1:1 nursing care. The report we received informed us that the patient was a 34 year old man found in PEA in a Subway sandwich shop with a suspected cause of opiate overdose and unknown amount of being pulseless. The patient arrived shortly after 7pm Intubated and unresponsive. He had no wallet or cell phone on his person and had no family or friends accompanying him.

Ashley went to work with the busy task of getting all aspects of the Therapeutic Hypothermia equipment in place, assisted with arterial and central venous access insertion, IV drip hung as ordered, meds given, called to have EEG tech place the patient on continuous EEG monitoring and notified NEOB per protocol.

These patients are very complex and often require 2-3 RNs to settle them in and ensure all orders are in place and compliant with the protocol. Due to the high census and acuity in CICU that night, Ashley completed these tasks independently, in a very timely manner and with much attention to detail. She left no stone unturned. After titrating Nicardipine to get the patient out of his hypertensive crisis, Ashley called the MD to see if next of kin had been notified. She was informed that they had tried the only number they had for him several times without answer and that they would look into it further in the morning. At this point Ashley became concerned and upset, because she felt we needed to do more to find this man's family. In her words, "If this was my son, father, brother or husband, I would want to know now." She expressed grave concern that he may not make it and his family should be notified and have the opportunity to be at his bedside for what would possibly be the end of his life.

Ashley did not allow the stigma that this man was a potential drug addict to interfere with not only providing compassionate and expert bedside nursing care but also advocating for him. Due to the lack of belongings, phone and no further information in the computer, Ashley did the most resourceful thing she could think to do at the time. On her lunch break she took the initiative to look the patient up on a social media site via her iPhone! From there she was able to uncover the names and home states of his family from his friends list. Unfortunately, when she tried to find contact information for them on Whitepages.com, they all had unlisted phone numbers. The patient also had his place of employment listed on the internet and Ashley placed a call to the supervisor there, telling him her name, where she worked and that she was looking for an emergency contact number for this patient. The patient did not list any contacts at his place of employment. Ashley, at this point called the non-emergent number for the Portland Police Department. She took the time to explain the situation and the steps she had taken so far. Within minutes, the police located and spoke to the patient's ex-wife, who was the mother of his two small children. The ex-wife called CICU, gave Ashley the patient's father's phone number and informed us she was on her way in to be with him until other family could get here. Ashley called the MD back, gave him the father's phone number, whom he called immediately.

As a result of Ashley's compassion and her resolve to ensure the right thing was done for this patient, his family caught the first flight out of Florida Saturday morning and was at his bedside before noon. They will never know the lengths Ashley went through to find them and ensure that they were able to be with their son, who had suffered a Cardiac Arrest that he may not recover from. But Ashley left here in the morning, relieved, knowing that her patient would not be alone regardless of his addictions or social situation.

This example of compassionate patient care and advocacy is one of many like stories for Ashley. She is truly a dedicated nurse who strives daily to ensure her patients and their families feel well cared for. Recently on March 31 in the Kennebec Journal, Ashley was publicly mentioned in the obituary of a patient she cared for at his end of life. It reads, "The family wishes to give special thanks to the nurses and staff at the cardiac critical care unit at Maine Medical Center for their care, compassion and support, and a special thank you to Ashley Poulin for making his stay there as comfortable as possible."