Paula Gallucci, BSN, RN, CCRN

Paula is hands down the best manager we have within Cottage Health. She is the reason I came to the MICU and the reason I have stayed here nearly 15 years. She embodies our core values of excellence, integrity, and compassion. The entire health system has been very busy for an extremely long time. When I feel like I am drowning in my patient care or as a charge nurse, Paula is the first person to come out and lend a hand. She will take over as charge nurse or resource nurse, give breaks, move patients, and be an overall helping hand.

I recall one instance where both ICUs were full and desperate to get a patient transferred out to a Med. Surg. floor. We had a Code Blue in the hospital, and the patient needed to come to the MICU. I was charge and had no idea what to do. Paula stepped right in and got on the phone to collaborate with Bed Board, Nursing Supervisor, Administrator on call, and a manager on the floor. She immediately took a patient out of a room and placed him in our respite room on a transport monitor with a nurse while waiting for a bed on the floor to open up. We got a STAT clean in that room so we could accommodate the Code Blue patient. We got the patient up to our unit, and everything turned out fine.

Those are the kind of things Paula does for us. She is able to think outside the box and work out some very complex situations for us. More than that, she has a way of calming the room. That calming presence enables me to think more clearly and work through the situation. I am going to steal this saying from a fellow nurse, Paula brings the weather. I hope she knows her positivity is infectious, and the MICU would not be the same without her.