In terms of Clinical Skills, Jessica has a broad depth of knowledge from Intensive Care nursing to home care nursing to most recently combining those skills to work in care management. Jessica's unique set of skills allows her to know what it is like to be acutely ill in the hospital, and what it takes to continue to recover once discharged, which makes her an exceptional care manager. She tirelessly works to make sure that patients' and families' discharge needs are met and that discharges occur safely and to the correct level of care - whether that is the home environment or to a skilled or rehab facility. Jessica often sits with patients and families for long periods to discuss their support systems, what their expectations for discharge and ongoing care involve, and the works in concert with them to create an acceptable plan. She advocates for the patient and family at all times. In this realm, she daily provides exemplary service to our patients along with compassionate care.
She attends our daily CV surgery and Intensivist rounds to make sure we are planning for discharge during the patient's entire length of stay and often interjects the patient's perspective into these planning activities. Where I am always amazed by Jessica is in her compassion and planning for our homeless population. She works to get them medical coverage if it is lacking, to access free or reduced cost medications when applicable, find a primary care physician when they don't have one and recommends appropriate community resources depending on patient need. Jessica serves on the board of the Without Strings Foundation which provides medical services - including vaccines and dental care free of charge to homeless and/or those without medical coverage in our community. She works to get our staff to volunteer at their events so that we can help provide these services as well as food and donations of clothing. She works at these events herself and has her husband assist as well.
What I truly think makes Jessica DAISY Award material is that compassion she has for all of our patients and how she works tirelessly to ensure their continuum of care is met after they are discharged. I have seen her negotiate what we thought were impossible discharges to SNFs. Most recently we had a patient who was hospitalized for over 2 months and had very complex discharge needs. The family was very tentative about the patient leaving our care. Jessica worked tirelessly with them to find an appropriate skilled facility placement and to ease the family into this transition by working with them on acceptable dates and times. The caregiver of this patient has come back to visit our unit and expressed his appreciation of her approach to his wife's continuum of care, noting that Jessica's efforts helped his comfort level and the patient's.