April 2009
Julie
Sidles
,
RN, BSN
Heart Center
Seattle Children's
Seattle
,
WA
United States
Julie came to the Heart Center about 1 year ago, having taken care of our patients on the inpatient surgical unit for many years. She has an unmatched calmness with families and and an ability to put any frightened child at ease. With her transition to ambulatory care came a lot of opportunities for Julie to lean; what she may not realize is how much her expertise and innate compassion continues to help out clinic staff grow and learn from her.
As a coworker, Julie is a gem. She is rarely sitting still, always searching for ways to help others in their work. She genuinely cares about those she works with, and truly embodies our ART standards of service.
As a nurse in ambulatory care, we perform a lot of "virtual" patient care; much of what we do includes talking with families over the phone and alleviating their anxiety from a distance. Whereas this anxiety could be perceived in different ways, Julie always keeps the patient at the forefront of her practice both in clinic and with "in-between" patient care opportunities.
An example: a caregiver called at 4:45 Friday afternoon, stating that they were almost out of oxygen in their baby's tank and that they had no more full tanks. The family had just arrive in their new home out of state and had not yet established home care services in their new town. Whereas others might have taken the easy road and just sent them to the local ER, Julie recognized that this would be difficult for this family, both from a social and physiological standpoint. This patient was very complex and she was concerned that the local ER may not understand her disease processes. Julie did everything that she could do to try to establish home delivery of oxygen for this family - even at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon. In the end, the family did end up taking the baby to the ER, but it was absolutely not due to Julie's lack of trying. She looked at the entire picture of the family's situation and did everything within her control to meet all of their needs.
In my opinion, a pediatric nurse needs to have an innate interest in caring for children and, with that, supporting the families who care for them. This is not something that is taught or learned, but needs to be present in each of us who provides care to the most sick of children. Julie embodies the virtues of the ideal pediatric nurse, an unrivaled level of compassion and attention for detail which provides for the most holistic of patient care, and for this, I feel that she exemplifies the characteristics of a DAISY nurse.
As a coworker, Julie is a gem. She is rarely sitting still, always searching for ways to help others in their work. She genuinely cares about those she works with, and truly embodies our ART standards of service.
As a nurse in ambulatory care, we perform a lot of "virtual" patient care; much of what we do includes talking with families over the phone and alleviating their anxiety from a distance. Whereas this anxiety could be perceived in different ways, Julie always keeps the patient at the forefront of her practice both in clinic and with "in-between" patient care opportunities.
An example: a caregiver called at 4:45 Friday afternoon, stating that they were almost out of oxygen in their baby's tank and that they had no more full tanks. The family had just arrive in their new home out of state and had not yet established home care services in their new town. Whereas others might have taken the easy road and just sent them to the local ER, Julie recognized that this would be difficult for this family, both from a social and physiological standpoint. This patient was very complex and she was concerned that the local ER may not understand her disease processes. Julie did everything that she could do to try to establish home delivery of oxygen for this family - even at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon. In the end, the family did end up taking the baby to the ER, but it was absolutely not due to Julie's lack of trying. She looked at the entire picture of the family's situation and did everything within her control to meet all of their needs.
In my opinion, a pediatric nurse needs to have an innate interest in caring for children and, with that, supporting the families who care for them. This is not something that is taught or learned, but needs to be present in each of us who provides care to the most sick of children. Julie embodies the virtues of the ideal pediatric nurse, an unrivaled level of compassion and attention for detail which provides for the most holistic of patient care, and for this, I feel that she exemplifies the characteristics of a DAISY nurse.