Karina goes above and beyond every time she works. She is dedicated to providing the best and safest care to her patients. She is compassionate and builds trusting relationships with families. She is frequently mentioned by families as providing exceptional patient care.
Karina is a preceptor and maintains her membership in a nursing professional organization for neonatal nurses (SWANN). She takes the time to make new staff feel supported and welcome and is viewed as a resource by her peers. She always takes the opportunity to teach and mentor others. She always has a smile on her face and has a calm, quiet approach with everyone she encounters. She exemplifies Children's Hospital values; we are lucky to have her as a nurse in the NICU.
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Since our twin boys were born early at 31 weeks, it has been a very difficult time for our family. Their birth was very sudden and unexpected, as well as the days that followed as both grew in the NICU. We found ourselves in an unfamiliar world of new medical terms we didn't initially understand, all sorts of equipment hooked up to our babies making it hard to see their faces or hold them, and many new faces of doctors and nurses.
Karina was one of the first nurses we met at Children's. It was evident from the start that she cared for our son as if he was a member of her own family. It is hard to explain in words how much this put our minds at ease, to know he was in her loving, capable hands when we could not be with him.
We could not visit nearly as often as we would have liked due to our circumstances. Karina asked to be his primary nurse and it made such a difference to us to see a familiar face when we visited. We had already met so many different nurses and doctors, often caring for our son for the first time. Because she was with him so often, Karina began to learn his preferences and tendencies in a way that other nurses and even we did not yet know. She was also the only nurse to call with updates on her own, without us calling first.
Karina is knowledgeable, kind, caring, and compassionate. She went above and beyond her job duties to make us feel comfortable and reassured, especially as we tried new things like feeding a premature baby for the first time. She never judged or criticized us. Her friendly personality and good nursing skills have made this difficult time so much easier.
Thank you, Karina, for the care and cuddles you have given to our tiny little boy. At first, we didn't understand why this situation was happening to our family. If there is anything good that came out of this experience, it was meeting wonderful nurses like Karina who will always hold a special place in our heart for the care they gave to our precious little boy when he needed it most.
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Karina is my son's primary nurse. We have been at Children's over 11 weeks and she was one of the first nurses we had. We are getting ready to go home and I don't know how we are going to go on without her. She has taken such amazing care of both our son and us. She has educated us on all our son's ailments and prepared us for everything we need to know to take him home.
Karina taught us how to change and ostomy bag, reefed it back into the mucus fistula, change and feed through a g-tube, and care for the nasal canula. Karina made diagrams for us to follow and charts of all his medications. Karina is the most loving and caring nurse, and also the most knowledgeable nurse. Karina has been through so much with us and we have been able to lean on her the entire journey.