Christina makes a meaningful impact on the culture at MEEI. She manages over 60 staff, always makes sure everyone is accounted for and their needs are met, and goes above and beyond to get things done. No task is too big or too small for her, and she regularly works with all tiers of the medical system flawlessly. We should be honored to have her as a part of our hospital system every day. Just yesterday she made a kudos board on the 11th floor for people to compliment and encourage each other, highlighting how regularly she goes above and beyond.
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I want to nominate Christina Mealey for the DAISY Award. Christina is a perfect example of what it means to be a DAISY! This award was created to celebrate caring compassionate nurses that make a real difference in the lives of their patients. Christina has several examples of how she has demonstrated these characteristics.
There was a patient who was having a painful and scary procedure at the bedside. While all the other team members were concentrating on their part of the task at hand, Christina focused on the patient and took his hand and said "I'm here for you" and talked him through the very frightening time. He later would call her his "angel". On another of many occasions, Christina learned that one of the patients was homeless and on discharge he needed some items to care for himself and she went out and with her own money, bought what he needed. On another occasion, a patient that had a life-changing surgery (laryngectomy) who was struggling with dealing with all the changes to his body (he could no longer speak, eat and had to learn to care for his stoma). The patient needed to feel that he could control when he was going to be taught—Christina was the one nurse who helped him feel in control after he felt that he had lost so much of it after the surgery and she made special times that she went in to teach him. These times were chosen by the patient and Christina dropped everything she was doing to help him. The patient's whole outlook visibly changed after working with Christina and he then learned his self-care. She also has gotten special cards for families of former patients to send them condolences when they had passed away. She has the team on 11 sign the card and the families have come back to the unit to personally thank the unit for the cards. She has a knack of remembering past patients and many of them stop in when they are seeing their surgeon on post-op and they look for Christina to thank her for her care. Christina is a clinical manager, but the patients on 11 all know her because she helps in their care and she shows all of them such compassion—she is a DAISY Nurse!