I don’t think you will find one anesthesiologist that doesn’t agree that Kim is instrumental when it comes to getting patients ready during a busy, high turnover surgery schedule. There is also nobody who would not tell you that her absence (on her day off) is not noticeable. One of our first questions in the morning, especially on a day when we have to perform different regional blocks is “is Kim working today”?

Besides her professionalism and excellent bedside manner, her big strong point is her ability to think ahead and coordinate all of the logistics for us to do our job safely and efficiently. She has the patient ready, equipment and paperwork on hand, she participates in performing the procedure and cleans up after us. She asks the right questions, reminds us to perform the important safety stops, and literally makes our hectic days as smooth as possible.

An example of her advanced planning, Kim reliably reviews the schedule with the anesthesiologist for the following days, makes notes as to which patient may require specific preoperative interventions or nerve blocks, and, magically, has everything ready for that patient the next day. She keeps everybody on the same page, which translates into efficient, but more importantly, safe patient care.