April 2010
Kirsten
Gidd
,
RN
pediatric ICU
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago
,
IL
United States
Kirsten Gidd- April DAISY Award Winner
I would like to nominate this Kristen for the DAISY award. She is an outstanding clinical nurse. I have had the pleasure of working with her for the past one and a half years, and have witnessed many times that her efforts go about and beyond for the care of not only her patients but all of the patients in her unit. Her fellow nurses are always thanking her for her assistance with the patients. To elucidate my observations I would like to describe a recent event that took place. We recently had an infant with complex congenital heart disease whose clinical course rapidly deteriorated. Kirsten was assigned as the ECMO specialty for another patient. When she learned of the event, she called in the ECMO perfusionist to cover the ECMO circuit where she was stationed and immersed herself within the cardiovascular code which was initiated on the infant. She assumed many roles throughout the code and became an essential leader in order to communicate, facilitate, and expedite team efforts. Including communicating the location of the necessary equipment and the OR personnel who needed to be called in our attempt to try to initiate ECMO on this patient. She did not know the patient's prior clinical course, but handled this even with great clinical expertise and assisted her colleagues in a stressful clinical situation. Her nursing colleagues referred to her that day as "super nurse". While our efforts were not successful in the resuscitation, she stayed to clean and bathe the infant and held the infant and presented the infant to the mother with sympathy and great care. In her eyes, you could see the emotion of such an event and what we all go through as caregivers when a patient dies. It was in this moment that I realized the great pain bedside nurses must feel when they hand an infant to a mother in that final moment. She handled this moment with much grace and humanism. She is an extraordinary nurse. Her skill, professionalism, collaboration, and team work are outstanding. The field we work in is very stressful and demanding and she handles each of these moments with a clinical grace which is remarkable. It is my honor to call her my colleague. I truly appreciate her assistance with all the cardiology patients. On many occasions, parents who return to visit me in my outpatient practice ask me how she is doing. I only hope you honor Kirsten’s efforts to her patient with this extraordinary award because she is an extraordinary nurse.
I would like to nominate this Kristen for the DAISY award. She is an outstanding clinical nurse. I have had the pleasure of working with her for the past one and a half years, and have witnessed many times that her efforts go about and beyond for the care of not only her patients but all of the patients in her unit. Her fellow nurses are always thanking her for her assistance with the patients. To elucidate my observations I would like to describe a recent event that took place. We recently had an infant with complex congenital heart disease whose clinical course rapidly deteriorated. Kirsten was assigned as the ECMO specialty for another patient. When she learned of the event, she called in the ECMO perfusionist to cover the ECMO circuit where she was stationed and immersed herself within the cardiovascular code which was initiated on the infant. She assumed many roles throughout the code and became an essential leader in order to communicate, facilitate, and expedite team efforts. Including communicating the location of the necessary equipment and the OR personnel who needed to be called in our attempt to try to initiate ECMO on this patient. She did not know the patient's prior clinical course, but handled this even with great clinical expertise and assisted her colleagues in a stressful clinical situation. Her nursing colleagues referred to her that day as "super nurse". While our efforts were not successful in the resuscitation, she stayed to clean and bathe the infant and held the infant and presented the infant to the mother with sympathy and great care. In her eyes, you could see the emotion of such an event and what we all go through as caregivers when a patient dies. It was in this moment that I realized the great pain bedside nurses must feel when they hand an infant to a mother in that final moment. She handled this moment with much grace and humanism. She is an extraordinary nurse. Her skill, professionalism, collaboration, and team work are outstanding. The field we work in is very stressful and demanding and she handles each of these moments with a clinical grace which is remarkable. It is my honor to call her my colleague. I truly appreciate her assistance with all the cardiology patients. On many occasions, parents who return to visit me in my outpatient practice ask me how she is doing. I only hope you honor Kirsten’s efforts to her patient with this extraordinary award because she is an extraordinary nurse.