Courtney Burke, RN

Courtney Burke saved a patient’s life due to her excellent clinical judgment. A patient of mine called in to report that she had gone to urgent care with back pain and shortness of breath. The patient was already seen by a provider there, received an x-ray, and was discharged home with ibuprofen and Flexeril for back pain. This is the point in triage that I think makes it easy for most people (MDs NPs RNs) to feel that further digging and evaluation are not needed. But when speaking with the patient over the phone, Courtney elicited recent travel history and medication history that included contraception that started less than 6 months ago. With this information that Courtney solicited, she came to me concerned about the patient having a Pulmonary Embolism. She set up the patient for an urgent CT and sure enough, a Pulmonary Embolism was diagnosed. I am so impressed with Courtney’s triage as she exemplified excellent clinical judgment and ultimately saved my patient's life.