Jennifer Rodriguez
April 2021
Jennifer
Rodriguez
,
RN
Northwest 4 Medical Surgical Unit
Montefiore Hospital - Moses Campus
I would have never had the nerve to do what she did. Jennifer never holds back when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of her patients.
Jennifer Rodriguez is always kind, compassionate, and excellent to work with. One moment however truly inspired me and continues to do so to this day. She had a young patient with sickle cell disease, in crisis, and 10 out of 10 in pain all the time. His PICC line had stopped working and he had very poor access. None of the floor nurses were able to place an IV.
From the morning, the doctors and Jennifer worked together to plan that he would get IV pain medication intravascular in the meantime, while they sorted out how to fix his PICC line access (calling the PICC line NP, heparin flushing, should he get a new one and etc). Jennifer was in the room giving injections of pain meds IM, every hour on the hour because this patient was in so much pain.
I saw Jennifer speaking with the primary team over and over regarding the care plan for this patient. The team wanted the IM meds to have time to work. The crying patient would ask to speak with the doctors himself, but they would placate him. Jennifer was the type of nurse to try every measure before taking a drastic one, so I knew this serious. Around 5-6 pm, at the end of shift, Jennifer asked me if we have a wheelchair on the floor so we could wheel the patient to the front desk where his team was sitting. Jennifer felt the medical team was not understanding the amount of pain the patient was in. I immediately helped her because this is outside of her character.
Before reaching the nursing station, Jennifer wiped her own tears upset from her patient being in agony and the doctors not giving the patient the attention that he needed, and this situation had come to this. The doctors, seeing Jennifer and the patient coming towards them, got the ultrasound machine to place an IV as an immediate intervention since the PICC line would not be handled soon. Later, Jennifer went to the resident in charge of the patient's care to apologize for the potential conflict. The resident in turn told her she was simply being an advocate for her patient. There are so many more instances where Jennifer's compassion has come into play at work. This situation blows me away. I would have never had the nerve to do what she did. Jennifer never holds back when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of her patients. Choose her! She is amazing!
From the morning, the doctors and Jennifer worked together to plan that he would get IV pain medication intravascular in the meantime, while they sorted out how to fix his PICC line access (calling the PICC line NP, heparin flushing, should he get a new one and etc). Jennifer was in the room giving injections of pain meds IM, every hour on the hour because this patient was in so much pain.
I saw Jennifer speaking with the primary team over and over regarding the care plan for this patient. The team wanted the IM meds to have time to work. The crying patient would ask to speak with the doctors himself, but they would placate him. Jennifer was the type of nurse to try every measure before taking a drastic one, so I knew this serious. Around 5-6 pm, at the end of shift, Jennifer asked me if we have a wheelchair on the floor so we could wheel the patient to the front desk where his team was sitting. Jennifer felt the medical team was not understanding the amount of pain the patient was in. I immediately helped her because this is outside of her character.
Before reaching the nursing station, Jennifer wiped her own tears upset from her patient being in agony and the doctors not giving the patient the attention that he needed, and this situation had come to this. The doctors, seeing Jennifer and the patient coming towards them, got the ultrasound machine to place an IV as an immediate intervention since the PICC line would not be handled soon. Later, Jennifer went to the resident in charge of the patient's care to apologize for the potential conflict. The resident in turn told her she was simply being an advocate for her patient. There are so many more instances where Jennifer's compassion has come into play at work. This situation blows me away. I would have never had the nerve to do what she did. Jennifer never holds back when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of her patients. Choose her! She is amazing!