This nurse received a patient from the ED late in her shift, around 5 pm. The patient had come in for chest pain, the cardiac workup was negative, and the plan was to discharge. The nurse quickly noticed some small neurological symptoms many nurses might have missed. When he drank water, he spilled on his shirt, he had a cell phone but did not call anybody to discuss discharge or transportation. The nurse investigated further and asked the patient more detailed questions. The patient told her he did not know he spilled water on himself and was not calling his family because he couldn’t figure out how to use the phone; as he seemed embarrassed to say. The nurse voiced her concerns to the hospitalist who was not very concerned and still wanted to proceed with discharge. She took her time and concern to ask the SWAT RN to come assess her patient.. SWAT RN that day told her they thought the patient’s S/S were residual from IV Benadryl and did not see any further concerns. She continued to voice her concerns to the hospitalist who eventually agreed to keep the patient overnight for continued monitoring.

When she arrived the next morning the FIRST thing, she did was check on this patient again, he was still having the same S/S, and she was very insistent on her assessment and the abnormal symptoms. The hospitalist finally agreed to an MRI, the MRI ended up showing numerous lesions on the brain, concerning for brain cancer. Oncology was consulted and the patient was arranged for a biopsy with the expectation of metastatic brain cancer.

The patient and his wife were EXTREMELY thankful for this nurse's quick critical thinking, her persistence, and how she continued to advocate for her patient. The patient’s wife was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and was tearful but so grateful for the care this nurse provided. Thankfully this nurse was so persistent and did not discharge this patient. This nurse is a young New Grad but is VERY observant and continues to take excellent care of Del Webb patients every day, she really is an Extraordinary Nurse!