Colleen has been awarded for her exemplary service, patient advocacy and continued commitment to excellence.
Colleen is an excellent nurse, never without a smile on her face or a listening ear. She provides top-notch and research-driven care to her patients and is highly interested in teaching everyone--her fellow nurses as well as our clients. She is patient and focused, committed to the SCT patient.
Together with a previous DAISY award winner, Lourine Davis, she developed the Inpatient Care Plan system/committee, called “ICP” on our unit, to help develop care plans for our long-term or highly-complicated cases.
One such patient, Mr. S, comes to mind, in which Colleen intervened and the ICP was successful in improving the patient’s outcome. The day I admitted him from the ICU, Mr. S was so severely deconditioned that he could barely move his hand to reach the pressure-sensitive plate that we installed as a call-button. Colleen intervened with her ICP, and helped goal-set with Mr. S. Just a few weeks later, I had him again and he was able to move himself up in bed and was walking with assistance to the bathroom. Again, Colleen had tweaked his care-plan to further goal-set and keep him active. The day before he was discharged, I helped Mr. S to the bathroom, where he walked all by himself.
I was amazed at how one nurse, Colleen, could be so effective in promoting change in the patient’s life, as well as promoting change on the unit. The ICP system was effective for that patient, Mr. S, and has been used many times since as an effective tool for our patients and promotes continuity and communication from shift to shift.
When I look at her example, it makes me strive to be a better nurse.