During one of the morning safety calls it was identified that a patient over the weekend who has a history of anxiety disorders was insisting on taking a walk outside of the hospital to visit with his dog. The Nursing staff was very uncomfortable doing this but did allow it for one occurrence. It was noted that the patient was scheduled for Open Heart Surgery that afternoon and anticipating the patient's anxiety about seeing his dog Kathy Miller the Nurse Manager of the SICU personally went and visited the patient and provided 1-2 hours of pre op teaching including information about how we could work with him to allow visits with his pet. This did seem to calm the patient and allowed for a much smoother post op course.

Hats off to Kathy who thought one step ahead and did what was right for the patient.