Janessa Vasallo is truly a valuable resource and asset to the Surgical ICU night shift! She is the "go-to" person for all things that most in the unit might not know. Need help to know where to locate a specific supply, transfer that patient from our census, check the ER census, discharge a patient, fix that monitor issue you're having, give directions to a certain department of the hospital, translate to your Spanish (and sometimes other languages) speaking patient, place an NG tube, foley, IV or other various procedure? The list could go on and on! She is always ready and willing and will help anyone successfully solve whatever the issue might be! Even when she is busy with her own assignment you can count on her to be there when you need a hand.
The evening that prompted me to nominate Janessa for this award she had a busy three patient assignment in the ICU but did many things to help our team and our patients. The unit had 4 Spanish speaking patients total and Janessa was the only one working with us that spoke Spanish, so she was helping to translate for each patient, to ask them about things they needed or tell the nurse what they were asking for. When a patient wants something or needs to use the restroom you don't always have time to use the language line! This made the patient's stay more comfortable I'm sure. During this same shift, she was called multiple times by a coworker in CICU that was running CRRT and having difficulty with the machine. Like I mentioned earlier, she is known as the "go-to" person around here, so they knew who to call. She took the time to go upstairs three or four different times to help and get the machine going again. On top of all that she helped with morning baths, turns, etc., throughout the shift.
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On another occasion, Janessa responded to a code blue on one of the medical floors. When the patient was resuscitated he was transferred to our unit and assigned to me as my third patient. Obviously, he was very critical and had a lot going on, needing stat labs, CT, IV drips and was being evaluated to possibly be set up for induced hypothermia. She was right there the whole time to help me get the orders done and assure that patients were taken care of. It was late in our shift, around 4 a.m., the time when labs, baths and morning tasks are usually taking place. When I took the post-code patient to CT scan she took it upon herself to draw morning labs on my two other patients, as well as her own two. She also made sure my two patients were clean, dry, vitals stable and medications given during the time I was one-on-one with the post-code patient.
For all these examples and so many more I truly believe Janessa deserves recognition as a nurse that goes above and beyond to help the team take care of our patients.