Katherine excels in leadership, teamwork and excellence in clinical practice – as she is continuously willing to support her team and patient’s needs. Katherine continually educates her team, and her patients with the goal of improving their health – and the results show.

Let’s face it – adjusting to life on dialysis is difficult – especially when you find yourself “crashing” into it. This is a truth, Kat, the Clinical Coordinator at Melbourne Dialysis is all too familiar with, when she greets and educates her new patients. However, this story is unique. When Katherine’s new patient arrived for his first treatment at DaVita, he had only been officially diagnosed with ESRD Stage 5 for 2 days – and he was scared - but immediately put his trust in Katherine! As such, when she recommended he receive a fistula, he immediately agreed to comply, especially since his catheter was having issues. And this is where the story begins! Due to this patient’s physiology, his body was rejecting the catheter, and, meanwhile, his 1st surgery was unsuccessful. As such, they replaced the catheter and proceeded with a 2nd surgery, then a 3rd, and ultimately a 4th surgery; all the while replacing catheters.

However, this is not a story on the patient’s accesses - rather how Katherine forbade the patient from giving up on himself. The patient began to assume his own fate and began to become despondent. This was when Katherine called the patient each day – his off-days and hers too - and was in constant communication with the patient's surgeon and nephrologist regarding the next steps until finally, a special procedure by the right surgeon resulted in that 4th access maturing and being used to this day! While this story is unique, Katherine’s dedication to her patients is not – and it is with this in mind – I am glad to nominate her for The DAISY Award!