(l-r) Irene Haramis, Maria Levine, Diane Scolamiero, RN, Tracy Crum CMA, Carla Meixsell-Arnold, DAISY Honoree; Denise Brenner, Manager; Kristen Walsh, RN, Dr Joseph Skerker, Nominator and WoundHealingCenter Director
February 2014
Carla
Meixsell-Arnold
,
BSN, RN, CWOCN
Wound Healing Center
Morristown Medical Center
Morristown
,
NJ
United States
This nomination recognizes, Carla Meixsell Arnold, a unique and gifted nurse who has partnered with me in a collaborative, open minded and spirited way from the day I walked into my brand new role as the Medical Director of The Wound Healing Center at Morristown Medical Center.
Carla had been relatively new to her job, arriving in the Spring of 2012 from another health care system, so she has been learning the Atlantic Health way. She hit the floor running and quickly had to adapt and actively managing a complex Wound Care Center that was in the midst of moving from an on-campus site to a brand new off-campus site over the summer of 2013.
Add to this mix, a new Manager who arrived in July 2013, and a new Medical Director who arrived in November 2013; one can see the potential for real chaos!
Instead, Carla greeted me with open arms, a welcome luncheon and an incredible can-do spirit of cooperation and collaboration. We set to work with more on our plates than I could have possibly imagined. Some of these include:
Major updates to our out of date and poorly kept EMR
Re-developing physician update meetings that had fallen by the wayside.
The need for new capital equipment items (exam chairs for our exam rooms).
The need to institute the use of appropriate topical wound and skin products to use with our patients.
The need to control excessive paper use so as not to break the bank. In this regard we are in the process of incorporating an outbound computer Faxing solution.
End of the year Holiday Party to celebrate our team successes.
The need for appropriate offloading devices /shoe wears for our patients with diabetic foot wounds.
Streamlining scheduling issues.
Winter snow storms that wreaked havoc with our schedules and patient care.
Organizing a better presence within the clinic with orthotic providers.
The Initiation of our Journey towards disease specific certification.
Evaluation of new wound care products.
Data Collection and evaluation issues.
Local Community and public relationship initiatives and initiatives to gain better continuity of care in our patients as they transition through different levels of care (inpatient, outpatient, post-acute care).
Initiatives to work more collaboratively with our colleagues from the Hyperbaric Oxygen Team.
And the list goes on and on.
...
Carla, a highly trained wound care specialty nurse has a wonderful way about her. She is not pushy but she is forceful. She keeps on an issue or problem until it is completed. She is well organized!! She has met and befriended many key players in the corporate system and learned to use their expertise to get things done. Carla just seems to know everything about the system!
But more than all that, Carla is an excellent caregiver and is exemplary in giving individualized care in a polite appropriate manner to all our patients. I recently had a difficult patient issue at our Sub-Acute Rehab Center and I recruited her to help me as I knew that she had more expertise than I did. She willingly came with me after work hours and saw the patient and helped (me and the patient) out tremendously.
...
Carla is a great sounding board. I can speak honestly to her without concern that it will be taken the wrong way. We partner on almost all of our projects and we have formed a really great working relationship in a few short months.
She travels over an hour each day to get to work and is often the first person here and the last to leave. She works from home on weekends and nights. She carries her Blackberry and is quick to respond day or night. She has also supported our initiatives to improve our education of our staff and our patients. She just had a poster presented at the American Professional Wound Care Association Annual Meeting last week in Philadelphia, PA. She helped one of our staff nurses create a new CEU program within this Clinic to do internal education on wound care issues that the staff will use towards necessary credits for maintenance of licensure. In addition, this same staff nurse will use the project for PACT.
In short, she has been a godsend for me and for this institution.
My deepest thanks and appreciation go to Carla Meixsell-Arnold, BSN, RN, CWOCN for tutoring me and bringing me along in my new role, and for attention to detail and her pleasant ability to collaborate with all clinicians and non-clinicians alike.
Carla had been relatively new to her job, arriving in the Spring of 2012 from another health care system, so she has been learning the Atlantic Health way. She hit the floor running and quickly had to adapt and actively managing a complex Wound Care Center that was in the midst of moving from an on-campus site to a brand new off-campus site over the summer of 2013.
Add to this mix, a new Manager who arrived in July 2013, and a new Medical Director who arrived in November 2013; one can see the potential for real chaos!
Instead, Carla greeted me with open arms, a welcome luncheon and an incredible can-do spirit of cooperation and collaboration. We set to work with more on our plates than I could have possibly imagined. Some of these include:
Major updates to our out of date and poorly kept EMR
Re-developing physician update meetings that had fallen by the wayside.
The need for new capital equipment items (exam chairs for our exam rooms).
The need to institute the use of appropriate topical wound and skin products to use with our patients.
The need to control excessive paper use so as not to break the bank. In this regard we are in the process of incorporating an outbound computer Faxing solution.
End of the year Holiday Party to celebrate our team successes.
The need for appropriate offloading devices /shoe wears for our patients with diabetic foot wounds.
Streamlining scheduling issues.
Winter snow storms that wreaked havoc with our schedules and patient care.
Organizing a better presence within the clinic with orthotic providers.
The Initiation of our Journey towards disease specific certification.
Evaluation of new wound care products.
Data Collection and evaluation issues.
Local Community and public relationship initiatives and initiatives to gain better continuity of care in our patients as they transition through different levels of care (inpatient, outpatient, post-acute care).
Initiatives to work more collaboratively with our colleagues from the Hyperbaric Oxygen Team.
And the list goes on and on.
...
Carla, a highly trained wound care specialty nurse has a wonderful way about her. She is not pushy but she is forceful. She keeps on an issue or problem until it is completed. She is well organized!! She has met and befriended many key players in the corporate system and learned to use their expertise to get things done. Carla just seems to know everything about the system!
But more than all that, Carla is an excellent caregiver and is exemplary in giving individualized care in a polite appropriate manner to all our patients. I recently had a difficult patient issue at our Sub-Acute Rehab Center and I recruited her to help me as I knew that she had more expertise than I did. She willingly came with me after work hours and saw the patient and helped (me and the patient) out tremendously.
...
Carla is a great sounding board. I can speak honestly to her without concern that it will be taken the wrong way. We partner on almost all of our projects and we have formed a really great working relationship in a few short months.
She travels over an hour each day to get to work and is often the first person here and the last to leave. She works from home on weekends and nights. She carries her Blackberry and is quick to respond day or night. She has also supported our initiatives to improve our education of our staff and our patients. She just had a poster presented at the American Professional Wound Care Association Annual Meeting last week in Philadelphia, PA. She helped one of our staff nurses create a new CEU program within this Clinic to do internal education on wound care issues that the staff will use towards necessary credits for maintenance of licensure. In addition, this same staff nurse will use the project for PACT.
In short, she has been a godsend for me and for this institution.
My deepest thanks and appreciation go to Carla Meixsell-Arnold, BSN, RN, CWOCN for tutoring me and bringing me along in my new role, and for attention to detail and her pleasant ability to collaborate with all clinicians and non-clinicians alike.