Nellie has strength in many categories, however, interpersonal skills, clinical skills, patient family-centered care, and team collaboration rise to the top. Below are just a few stories that exemplify these qualities.
In the area of clinical skills and patient family-centered care one of our patients wrote: "Nellie is one of the most professional and compassionate people I have ever met. Her knowledge in medication, reliability, and care exceed all nurses I have encountered. Her extreme quickness to respond to my needs and others is a rare quality. Nellie is the employee that can lead Saddleback Medical Center to even greater standards."
Another patient wrote: "Nellie is very professional and very kind. She answers my needs immediately."
One day Nellie had a patient who was suffering in Alcohol withdraw. The patient was verbally aggressive at the beginning of the shift. This is such a stressful situation for any nurse at the start of the shift. Nellie told me not to worry, she can handle the situation and take care of the patient. She tried her best to calm the patient down with extremely patient respectful tones and trying to build a good relationship with him. The patient was able to quiet down only for a short period of time and then progressed to physically acting out. Nellie was at the bedside trying to listen to him and see how she could help him. He suddenly pushed the overbed table toward Nellie, and it ran over her toes and hurt them badly. It must have been very painful because Nellie screamed limping out of the room, in tears.
Later Nellie told me she already felt better and would continue to take care of this patient. When Nellie walked into the patient's room, using the same calming voice and sweet tone when talking to the patient, he felt so apologetic and said, "I'm so sorry for what I did, I hurt your foot, I can't believe you would continue to take good care of me, I'm so sorry...." Nellie finished the shift, never asked for switching nurses, she showed great empathy, compassion, and patient-centered care towards this patient in great need of a respectful and professional nurse.
These few stories and letters represent what Nellie comes to accomplish every shift. She comes to work with compassion and a desire to make a difference. It is this passion that makes Nellie a DAISY Nurse.