Colton
Billings
September 2024
Colton
Billings
,
MSN, RN
UCHealth Memorial
Colorado Springs
,
CO
United States

 

 

 

His education is comprehensive and targets areas that are important for patient safety.  This education is now being used throughout the system to ensure all nurses provide safe care to our patients with DKA.
Colton actively rounds in his multiple units and with all of his staff.  He finds time to make himself available for them when they need help.  He has been a great resource for bringing questions, concerns, and clarifications back from front-line staff. He truly practices that no question is a dumb question and makes sure others understand the confusion and works to ensure he gets clarification. 

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Colton is respectful in meetings and clearly listens and communicates well with frontline staff as he understands their concerns to bring them back up to larger groups.  He provides opportunities to discuss and ensure nurses have the tools they need to provide safe and efficient care.

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Colton readily takes on challenging tasks like creating nursing education for DKA. He recognized there was an area for improvement and spent the time and resources needed to help make the process better.  His education is comprehensive and targets areas that are important for patient safety.  This education is now being used throughout the system to ensure all nurses provide safe care to our patients with DKA.

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Colton has been great with adjusting as new items have come up. We have worked with him for both hypoglycemia/DKA/insulin drips and also with neostigmine administration on the acute care floor. In both of these instances, new information or changes came up and he quickly understood and pivoted to make sure we optimized the process, asked the appropriate questions, and came up with a plan to incorporate the changes in. Critical Care often has emergent needs for education that require flexibility and on-the-spot education.  Colton always provides concise and accurate education whenever needed.

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Colton role models his love of learning by recently completing his master’s degree. His MSN project was completed in MICU. He was able to bring new evidence and best practice to the MICU nurses in assessing for delirium. Colton readily reviews literature and medication information and will ask questions to help him gain a better understanding of medications and their pharmacokinetics, dosing, etc.

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Colton and I have worked together on several nursing education items, and it is a collaborative approach to review and providing constructive feedback or clarification.  He establishes clear objectives for the nurses when teaching classes or leading collaborative discussions. He works with the nurses to provide constructive feedback that is both empowering and optimal for growing them in their profession.

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I have seen Colton build collaborative relationships with multiple disciplines – nurse managers, pharmacy, CNS, etc.  He works to develop strong teams to come together to accomplish new practices.  Working with Colton to develop the modified cardiac resuscitation process and team in our cardiac stepdown was an opportunity to collaborate with Cardiothoracic providers, nurses, PT/OT therapist, respiratory and pharmacy.  Due to the successful collaboration and teamwork, we have been able to implement this new process for our open-heart patient population successfully.