I am a physician assistant in the BMC plastic surgery department who works very closely with Jen Pierce. Every day, she demonstrates her diligence and selflessness and goes above and beyond for our patients and staff. I did want to share one particular anecdote, however, that demonstrates her medical knowledge, a high index of clinic suspicion, and extremely caring nature.

We had a post-operative patient who had breast reconstruction after mastectomies for breast cancer. She came in and reported to everyone that she was feeling well. She had developed an excellent rapport with Jen over the course of her time with us and wound up opening up to Jen, saying that she was feeling a little slow, a little winded, and a little more tired. Jen re-checked her vitals and noticed a slightly increased heart rate. On further questioning, the patient reported some vague pain with deep breaths. Jen was concerned that the patient may have developed a PE even though she had been adequately treated with post-op anticoagulation and did not have a high Caprini score. She advocated for the patient and worked hard with radiology to get her a same-day lower extremity Doppler to rule out DVT, which found left lower extremity DVTs. Ultimately, she was sent to the ED and found to have bilateral subsegmental PEs requiring hospital admission. Both the patient and I were so thankful for Jen’s care, clinical suspicion, and perseverance in caring for this patient. She may have wound up saving this patient’s life, which all started with developing a good rapport with the patient and having such a strong base of medical knowledge. Our office and patients benefit so much from Jen’s hard work and we likely could not function without her. Jen exemplifies extraordinary nursing every single day.