A nurse of just under 2 years, Kyra demonstrates great knowledge, compassion, and skill in her patient care. Kyra welcomes challenging situations and is often the first to volunteer to care for a patient with a more complex situation. Her care for a young patient in R6 IMC was no exception.

This patient was admitted to Maine Medical Center with a significant brain injury, requiring intense care throughout his stay. In addition to the direct care needed by the patient, there were many challenging interactions with family for many staff on the unit. Although the family dynamics were a known challenge, Kyra did not shy away. She often volunteered to pick up extra hours to care for him, providing greater consistency in his care and the relationship with his family. With this consistency, Kyra was able to identify subtle changes in the patient’s status that had not been picked up on by other care providers.

Kyra advocated heavily for better medication management and helped to organize a team meeting when she felt that there was an opportunity for better alignment among care team members. This was a critical point in his recovery and Kyra ensured that his complex needs were being identified and addressed. Even on days Kyra was not the primary nurse, she could be found resourcing other nurses to ensure all were on the same page with his care. The joy Kyra experienced from seeing the patient improve was palpable, and her contribution to his recovery was significant.

Kyra role-modeled the MaineHealth values throughout the patient’s stay with both her patient care and her interactions with family. She led with compassion, understanding the complexity and difficulty of the situation and keeping the patient at the center of all that she did.