Since meeting Erin Kozlowski four months ago, I have been in awe of her enthusiasm for patient care and her desire to learn and grow within the field of nursing. Erin's actions in March of 2017, where she accurately recognized a myocardial infarction in a rapidly decompensating patient, proves she is a true DAISY Nurse.
On this extremely busy afternoon, Erin covered another nurse for lunch. The patient was an eighty-three-year-old gentleman who was in his third or fourth day on our unit. The patient was stable on each shift prior to this day and he had an extremely supportive family who were both regularly present and involved in his care. Erin, not knowing the patient, walked into the room and identified from the concern expressed by the family that something was wrong. The patient had become very sweaty and his stable tachycardia had transitioned into a much faster rhythm. Though difficult to identify from our bedside monitors, the patient was experiencing a rapidly evolving heart attack.
Erin's first action was to perform an EKG. Several minutes later, Erin was able to interpret, from an altered ST interval, that our once stable and cheerful patient was now likely experiencing a myocardial infarction. By the time that the patient's primary nurse returned from lunch, our medical team had seen the patient, confirmed a diagnosis and alerted the Department of Cardiology.
Upon returning from the Cath lab, a shift change was about to start and the patient's condition was once again deteriorating. As a charge nurse, I assisted the night shift primary nurse to prepare for intubation. Prior to leaving for the day, Erin came by the room once more to offer assistance, her level of concern and fear were very apparent. The patient was successfully intubated, sadly, however, he rapidly deteriorated and passed away despite hours of hard work and determination from the departments of Cardiology, Oncology, and MSICU Nursing.
Prior to leaving, the patient's son and daughter, who are both physicians, offered the highest praise for Erin. The patient's children believe that Erin's actions provided their father his only chance for survival and ultimately their opportunity to have time to say "goodbye". In our parting discussion, the patient's daughter, a UC Davis Physician, suggested the DAISY Award as a means to convey the gratitude that they, as a family, have for the extraordinary expertise in practice that Erin demonstrated that afternoon.