January 2022
Laurie
Waldron
,
BSN, RN, CAPA
PSB PACU
Inova Fairfax Hospital
Falls Church
,
VA
United States

 

 

 

In addition to her work here on campus, Laurie has been supporting other Inova campuses that are preparing to begin their own ECT program by having them shadow here and observing our workflow.
Laurie Waldron is an extraordinary nurse in the PSB PACU on the IFMC. She goes above and beyond on a daily basis for her patients, peers, and team. Due to construction in the Tower, Peri-Operative departments, the ECT patient population was brought to our unit. This collaborative effort with our behavioral health partners is successful because of her attention to detail, desire to provide exceptional patient care, integrity, and compassion. When we started to work with this patient population the response from their family members was overwhelmingly positive and they continue to have exceptional care.

In addition to her work here on campus, Laurie has been supporting other Inova campuses that are preparing to begin their own ECT program by having them shadow here and observing our workflow. When we introduced the breast oncology patient population to the PSB, Laurie immediately began researching evidence-based articles for our "tips and tricks" for optimizing their care. She also reached out to our surgeons so that we could streamline their preferences in our processes. Education was shared throughout the department which resulted in a nice transition in the care of these patients. She also arranged for that extra touch with breast cancer awareness surgical bouffant and pink post-operative bras.

As the Unit Supervisor, Laurie makes sure that her team feels supported in all things. She is on the unit and jumps in whenever she is needed, provides coaching conversations, covers any and all shifts where shortages arise (is very flexible in the times that she works: comes in early and/or stays late), and makes sure that the team celebrates and takes time for self-care and resilience. She brought in a yoga instructor for a meeting, participated in Zooms for resilience and crucial conversations, inspires strong teamwork by example, gets the team together (when possible) outside of work, organized an inspirational meeting with myintent.org bracelets, gives high fives often, and comes up with many other creative and thoughtful interventions to strengthen our team.