Lettie Debber is always professional, displays a positive attitude even during the most hectic times, and her honesty and integrity are unmatched.
We frequently have medical and nursing students in our clinic and Lettie is paired up with them to offer mentorship, as she is a wonderful educator and role model. Additionally, she is responsible for training our float nursing staff within the Allergy Clinic and she does a stellar job. She has traveled to the Prescott VA to educate the nursing staff there on safe immunotherapy administration in an effort to reduce the number of near misses in that facility.
Lettie has also educated the primary care nurses on the proper use of the Epi-Pen, so they can better educate their own patient panels. Through her praiseworthy and exemplary teaching skills, she has taken an extremely complex practice and protocol and made it accessible and easy to learn for even the most novice of nurses.
Lettie has been unwavering and steadfast in meeting the needs of our patient panel. She volunteered to provide infusion therapy for our hereditary angioedema patients to provide them with better access to care, and to alleviate some of the burden off of the treatment room. She has contacted in-patient pharmacy to make special arrangements to pre-mix Xolair for one of our frail elderly patients, so he could continue getting his therapy, as he was not able to endure the long wait for his medication. She has also coordinated care with both the inpatient and CLC hospitalist in an effort to keep our Xolair patients on their medication, even while admitted.
Lettie even went and educated in-patient nursing staff on how to administer the drug so the patients' therapy would remain on time and safe. These are but a few of examples of the measures she has taken to go above and beyond to meet the needs of our patient panel.
Lettie has a wonderful rapport with our patient panel and frequently advocates for them. If they show up for their therapy and have forgotten their required Epi-Pen, she goes the extra mile and tries to get them a refill from the pharmacy, so their trip was not in vain. She has also reached out to other clinics to help patients to get the medications and/or tests that they need and has helped patients research various avenues to receive the benefits they deserve.
Additionally, patients have asked to have their FMLA paperwork filled out, as they were turned away by other clinics, and Lettie has always taken the time to help every one of these patients.
She is not only the cohesive bond that holds this clinic together, but she always advocates for her fellow nurses too. She helps us with our own schooling, and always encourages us to advance our own academia and careers.
Lettie's keen assessment skills have picked up on subtle cues in a patient's symptomology and has certainly made a crucial impact on patient outcomes. To date, she has caught a Non-STEMI heart attack, pyelonephritis, new onset A-fib, bladder infection, pneumonia, acute renal failure, and MRSA skin infection to name a few. When these situations arise, she has always made the appropriate referrals to have the patients evaluated and treated in a timely manner. This is to say nothing of the cases of anaphylaxis that we routinely treat within our clinic, and she does so with a cool head and ardent focus. We are certain that she has saved a patient's life on more than one occasion.
Moreover, despite working full-time and battling an auto-immune disease, Lettie is currently pursuing her education to finish her graduate studies. She is nearly done with her Master's Degree in Nursing Education and will be a true asset in that realm.