Minette Vallesteros commenced her work in our department as Staff Nurse III, but she never ceased to show her persistence, motivation, and optimism towards her professional career. Her own skills and hard work have propelled her to the next level. She became a SN II, after a couple of months of the same year. Her promotion was not a surprise to us all because of her perseverance, dedication and determination just another flying colors with which she had succeeded. She continuously aimed to keep going and the wheels of her career are spinning at full speed. Her promotion as an SN I is the biggest and the best leap in her career, thus far.
I have had the pleasure of working with her over the past 7 years and I witness her daily compassion for patients. She shows her genuine care and always has a positive effect on her patients and she elicits a positive emotional response. She works in a multi-cultural environment in all areas of Family Medicine. Working in the Out-patient units like Family Medicine is different; patients come and go with different health and social care needs. In the Nurse Work Room, which is a nurse-led clinic, a large number of employees and dependents are booked and are being seen every day, but despite of the workload, she is able to attend to the needs of her individual patients, and she tries to accommodate them providing education of the different vaccines being given and you will really see on their faces how thankful they are to her. She always has a smile on her face, with a pleasant attitude when dealing with her patients. She never complains. She demonstrates great interpersonal skills and is a true patient advocate. When she is in charge in the Walk-in, no matter how busy, she is always there to help and pacifies patients who are waiting to be seen by physicians, and prioritizing those who need urgent interventions. One early morning in the Walk-in, there was an adult patient who came with low heart rate and low O2 saturation upon screening. The patient has a history of cardiac problem. The Triage nurse asked help from her; she took the lead to do immediate interventions to this patient as taking the EKG, and hooked the patient to the O2. She informed the physician on call, and at the same time called the Paramedics as the patient's O2 saturation is going down. The other nurses helped to insert the IV cannula and drew blood from the patient. And eventually the patient was sent to EMS thru the Paramedics with proper endorsement. What such a relief it was! Taking a lead as she showed in times of urgent situation makes a difference to saving one's life.
Minette goes out of her way to offer support, knowledge and encouragement to her colleagues as a great resource person and a team player. As a UBC Chair, she is an outstanding role model for this unit. She cultivates a collaborative environment and invites the whole team to share in the units' goals and helps create action steps needed to achieve them. She acknowledges staff for their strengths and celebrates their wins with them. She takes a lead to set up building activities for the staff such as the IFI's and facilitating to a computerized documentation system which enhanced departmental efficiency, removed much of the paperwork burden from nurses and physicians which has a huge impact on patient safety. And because of her initiative and the joint efforts of all staffs in any project in the unit, Family Medicine won as the Best in New Knowledge, Innovation and Improvement in the Nursing Excellence Awards.
Minette's actions define her character as a nurse, being truthful, reliable and authentic. She is an example of a compassionate leader. She is able to inspire others through kindness, flexibility, support and empowerment. I am proud to have her as a part of our unit's team.