Ms. Duckworth has been working in Dermatology since the fall of 2021. Since that time, it has been obvious that she goes above and beyond her duties on a daily basis. She is truly a patient advocate and takes time to assess the needs of the whole patient, their family, and situation; not just addressing the reason for the visit.

There are countless examples that I wished I wrote down, but I will name a few: a patient in our clinic was going to go to his PCP nurse for instructions on how to use his inhaler. Instead, after his DERM visit was over, Lillian took him to her office and provided the needed patient teaching, and saved him a very long wait.

Any time a veteran seems to have needs that extend beyond the clinic setting such as a spouse saying how they are a full-time caregiver with no breaks, or that being that a patient has such limited mobility that it’s very difficult to get them to appointments, etc., Lillian takes that extra time to explain the resources that we have here such as home-based primary care, respite care consult for the caretaker, etc. She is knowledgeable and has a way of setting our patients and their families at ease. When there is a patient that was extra apprehensive during a procedure, she will call them later that day or the next day just to check on them and be sure they are doing well and feeling better.

She has also taken on patient education projects when she notices there is a need (there seems to be a pattern of multiple people calling with the same questions) and will put the information in a packet or hand out that we are able to give our patients before they leave clinic as a reference to not only review what was said but so that they can share w/their family as well if they wish. She deserves recognition for going above and beyond her DERM duties on a daily basis. Our veterans benefit greatly from her care!