So often many nurses don't like to take credit for doing a job that they love so much and one that inspires them. We get to step into the lives of perfect strangers and make a difference. We get easily attached to our patients and their families. The work of the nurse is relentlessly challenging, especially our PRN staff nurses. PRN Nurses at CHP often are in different units for every one of their shifts, and sometimes are moved from one unit to another during their shift and go where they are needed for the staffing numbers and patient acuity. We work in chaotic environments, higher patient acuity, and a host of other factors that put huge pressures on the PRN nurses. The life of a PRN/Supplemental Nurse at CHP can be just that. It could be the reason these nurses often go above and beyond and so many times ignore what extraordinary things they do in their workday. It comes down to the ability to tune in and understand what is most important to that person right then. This describes Kelly to a "T".
I have worked with Kelly for the last 5 years. She is very passionate about her care for her patients and her fellow nurses. While I was at lunch one time she not only helped my patient up to get to the bedside commode and put flushes on my medications that needed it, she as well stocked my unicell cabinet and stocked my linens in my patient's room. Just the other day I was on the PICU and she was bringing a patient down to the PICU from the NICU. After she dropped the patient off, gave handoff patient report to the nurse getting her patient, when she went back to the NICU she mixed new feeds for that patient and brought it back down to the PICU for that nurse. This patient had enough feeds to finish out that shift, but she did not want to leave her colleague or the patient with not enough tube feeds for the remainder of that shift and for the next shift as well. Kelly does these extraordinary things like this every time she works. She is such a great role model for other nurses.
Kelly truly demonstrates the right mix of the art and science of nursing and is truly a role model for other nurses here at CHP to follow. We all took the Nightingale Pledge when we graduated from nursing school at our Nurse Pinning ceremony. I witness Kelly honor the pledge every day, no matter what unit she is assigned to. Kelly always has a big smile on her face and an even bigger smile in her heart for her patients and her fellow nurses.