Phillip goes above and beyond and gives compassionate care to our patients every single day. He works hard to make sure his wound care patients' needs are met and that they have all the equipment and education to take care of their wounds. He promotes a feeling of empowerment for his patients. Aside from his wound care duties, he has recently taken on the role of OR Circulator.
When Phillip first transitioned into this role, I thought, "Man, what a disservice; all of his patients will be asleep." But, he quickly proved me wrong. The specific encounter that inspired me to nominate him for this award was indeed a surgical patient, a pediatric patient. This young man was 11 years old but very intelligent beyond his age. He was scared and nervous (as anyone can be expected to be) and in the way of a young man, he had no less than 1,000,000 questions about the procedure.
Phillip recognized this patient's needs immediately and they began to talk about oxygen concentration in the air and how long you can go without breathing if you have 100% oxygen in your lungs. He compared it to Navy Seals and various other examples that really resonated with this patient. He went on to discuss the young man's hobbies and how he recently won his school's science fair with his project on algae.
Now I'm not sure if Phillip was really that interested in the workings of algae, but you couldn't tell either way because he took the time to listen and interact and ask questions. Ultimately this made the patient much more comfortable and relaxed before surgery and gave a sense of relief to the child's parents that their son was in good hands. Hands that cared about their son like his very own son.
Deep down, I think Phillip has a calling in Pediatrics and maybe one day I can recruit him to our department, but for now, I want him to know how much his commitment to our patients means to all of us and just how very appreciated he is.