Daniel Javier, RN, BSN, MICN

I wanted to give a shout out to DJ for last night. At 8 pm, we had 73 in the department and 21 people waiting to be seen, with an almost two-hour wait time for triage- flu season mess. DJ and another nurse were doing great in triage, considering the volume, and there was a patient who checked in with arm swelling as the listed chief complaint. DJ went to call another patient but saw him in the lobby and noticed he didn't look great, got more information, pulled him back to get vitals in the hallway because the rooms were full, noted that he was hypotensive and short of breath, I screened him and Bowman was able to quickly get 14 available to start BiPAP and pressors. He had a potassium of 7.7 and is in the ICU now but with the volume we had if DJ hadn't recognized his condition in the lobby and acted on it quickly, I truly believe he would have coded before he was called in to triage if they were only going based on time and documented complaint. It was a really good catch when we were inundated with patients and deserved an official email to add to his next review.