marianne culmone, BSN, RN

Marianne entered one of her patient's rooms and noticed that one of the patient's elderly guests was sitting with his head bowed into his hands and was looking pale. Marianne asked the gentleman if he was feeling alright and the man replied that he felt dizzy and had been feeling dizzy on and off all day. Marianne decided to check the man's blood pressure. The machine had a difficult time reading a blood pressure but a result of 86/43 was obtained. Marianne found the man's pulse to be irregular and questioned the man about any previous history of an irregular heartbeat to which the man replied no. Marianne called a rapid response and an EKG performed noted new onset A-Fib. The man was assisted onto a stretcher down to the ER and was eventually admitted to Telemetry. Marianne's skills in observation and assessment extended beyond her actual patient and extended to the patient's guests and surroundings where she correctly identified another man in need.