Kenisha Lee was the primary RN taking care of a patient we had on the floor. The patient had been admitted for chest pain and an increase in stressors. All diagnostic tests had come back negative and MD was going to write discharge orders. Kenisha felt like something was not right with the patient and asked for a psych assessor to come to evaluate. The assessor did come and cleared the patient for home.
Kenisha really felt like there was something off with the patient and asked the charge nurse to chat with the patient to get a second opinion. After walking a couple of laps around the unit talking with the patient, she was in agreeance that something just was not quite psychologically right. She called for a second and different psych assessor to come to see the patient. The patient did confide in the second assessor that she, in fact, had a gun in her personal belongings and would use it on her kids and grandkids if able. The patient was transferred to a psych facility for additional help.
Without Kenisha's and the charge nurse's persistence and advocating for the patient, outcomes could have been drastically different. They really went above and beyond to protect the safety of not only the patient but their family.