Leah Paro is an inspiration and embodies what it is to be an excellent nurse. She is compassionate and empathetic in her clinical practice. Her compassion is displayed in her calm voice, her word choices and the body language she uses that sends a message that she cares. I sincerely believe, she is gifted with the patience of Job, the biblical character known for his patience in the face of adversity. I remember Leah intuitively re-directing my emotions and responses during a stressful rapid response call simply because she cared about the patient, the bedside nurse and about me. This thoughtful nurse is sensible, self-composed and able to provide correction and give direction from a place of love; these attributes are what gives her the reputation as being an amazing credible nurse.
Her integrity goes without question as she is dependable and trustworthy. She has a quiet, gentle demeanor and as a RAT nurse, you will never find her arrogant in her clinical nurse practice. During one of her rapid response calls, Nurse Paro is observed fervently but tactfully advocating on behalf of the bedside nurse to have a diabetic patient, complaining of SOB, transferred to the Medicine Intensive Care Unit (MICU). On another account, she is seen intently listening to a nurse express concern for a patient described as "feisty and likes to argue with nursing staff." Her therapeutic communication, support and reassurances proved instrumental in de-escalating the patient's anxiety and creating trust; allowing the healthcare team to provide treatment for this patient who is breathing 38 to 40 times a minute. In addition, she ensures that her responsibilities are fulfilled even if they border on the end of her shift. In her day to day practice, you will not find her taking short cuts to speed a process along especially if it compromises patient safety. There just are no inflated adjectives to describe Nurse Paro's integrity because she is an honorable nurse that leads by example. Through her work experiences, she has earned the respect of her peers as a mentor, confidant, leader, collaborator, educator, advocate and friend.
Leah raises the bar when it comes to knowledge sharing and collaborative nurse practice. To help facilitate excellent patient outcomes, Nurse Paro works to maintain professional relationships by respecting the ideas, opinions, differences and authority of others. She is a problem solver and very resourceful in crucial clinical situations. I admirably witnessed her in action during a rapid response call for a hypotensive and actively bleeding patient with hemoglobin of 6. She skillfully manages to facilitate a collaborative nursing process between the MICU charge nurses, the RAT nurses and the bedside nurse in order to implement orders until the operating room (OR) was prepped. This dynamic nurse is undoubtedly a catalyst for team camaraderie. With that in mind, she is also skilled in persuasion, which makes her influential and an asset to any emergency medical response team.
With a strong work ethic and clinical influence, she empowers nurses to be excellent nurses. As a nurse clinical leader, she energetically offers encouragement and models teamwork, with the goal to promote a positive work environment that motivates others, increases morale and to helps to produce excellent patient outcomes. Also as a nurse clinical leader, she processes patient information quickly and takes charge of patient care concerns that require immediate attention. This was seen in the case of a patient, with an increased heart rate (HR) was discovered during a PIV request. Instinctively and confidently, she ushered the physician team quickly to the patient's bedside and pushed for a stat head computerized tomography (CT) for a Spanish speaking patient with unilateral numbness, in addition to her tachycardia. Nevertheless, her clinical knowledge and instincts pays off when a head bleed was discovered.
Leah Paro openly shares her clinical knowledge with others as she is dedicated to excellence in nursing and the implementation of best practices. She holds a nurse certification as a Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), a National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) certification from the American Stroke Association (ASA) and a Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) certification by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA). As an Advance Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) instructor, she helps to lead the resuscitation process during inpatient cardiopulmonary arrests (CPA) and facilitates code debriefs afterward s for quality improvements and emotional support. She is also involved the Nursing Transition to Practice Residency program to help mentor new nurses with work performance, clinical judgement, patient safety, best practices and leadership. This driven nurse also participates on the ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) quality improvement (QI) committee that ensures proper management of STEMI cases.
And lastly, this extraordinary nurse is a clinical steward who helps to make Parkland a safe place for patients. She writes Mock Codes scenarios, ensures crash cart are properly stocked, does competency testing for point of care technology, provides clinical education to frontline nurses and drives clinical process for sepsis treatment bundles.
Leah Paro is an exemplary, highly respected, beloved and dedicated Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) nurse with over 13 years of critical care experience at Parkland Health & Hospital System. She is a role model others can aspire to be.