On the particular day in question, it was obvious to me as I was up on the floor that Heather was having a particularly stressful day. She had several patients to discharge, and no sooner were they discharged, they were replaced with new admits from ER so fast that it made me wonder if they changed the sheets (of course, I'm sure they did). In addition, a couple of the patients that she was assigned had pressing issues that seemed to arise all at the same time, and the family members of yet another of her patients were requesting a lot of her attention.

One of her patients that day was more challenging than usual, as she had mild MRDD and was not too verbally communicative. She had just been admitted, and an MRI of the brain had been ordered. On a day like the day that Heather was having, where she was being pulled in every direction, it would have been easy to not be as thorough as usual when assessing a patient that seemed as stable as did this patient, and spend more time with the other patients that apparently required at that moment more urgent attention. But Heather didn't. Despite all that was going on with her other patients, her assessment of this one was thorough enough to notice that her neck seemed to bother her. Heather used good judgment, and suggested getting an MRI of the cervical spine as well. This was done, and it was found that the patient had sustained significant injury to her cervical spine. It was the impressive care that Heather provided (and the support she was getting from Charge Nurse Collins) that CLEARLY made a difference for this patient.


Nominated by: C.A., M.D.