February 2023
Kathryn (Kate) H
Willis
,
BSN, RN
7 Mountain PCU
Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital
Roanoke
,
VA
United States
These 2 nurses took it upon themselves to go to the pharmacy, pick up the medication, and then delivered it directly to the patient at his home so that he would be able to take it that night.
A patient had been discharged from our unit on a drug called Tikosyn, an antiarrhythmic that is a serious medication that the patient can not miss a dose of. The patient thought that he had picked this up at the lobby pharmacy but, a mistake was made and the patient did not receive it. The patient called the unit and panicked because he did not have the medication at home. The lobby pharmacy was called, pharmacy realized that they had missed the tikosyn order and filled it for him to come and pick it up. This patient lived alone, was on home oxygen, and did not drive so he had no way of getting to the hospital to get the medication (not every pharmacy carries this medication). These 2 nurses took it upon themselves to go to the pharmacy, pick up the medication, and then delivered it directly to the patient at his home so that he would be able to take it that night. This was after they had both worked 12 hour shift on the unit and neither one of them hesitated to do this. They both saw that a patient was in need and did what was needed to be done to have a positive outcome for this patient. This is just one of the acts that they do on a daily basis to provide the best care possible to our patients and I felt they should be recognized for it.