This team's clinical skill and compassionate care exemplify the kind of staff that patients, their families, and fellow staff recognize as outstanding role models. They consistently demonstrate the Sentara Mission to improve health every day.
The PASS Nurses have started working on setting up a Pre-Anesthesia Testing (PAT) Clinic that would provide a patient with a face to face visit with the PASS nurse instead of completing an assessment over the phone. The team has been given an opportunity to test out this face to face concept with the help of Ada Vega-Diamantis, RN our Joint Replacement Navigator. It started with a patient needing a sign language interpreter. Ada had arranged for an interpreter as she reviewed the patient teaching and surgical preparation class she does with her joint patients. While the interpreter was here Ada asked if we could complete the PASS call in person. This was repeated soon after with another patient needing a sign language interpreter.
Since this worked so well there were other opportunities to better improve our patient experience when other patients needing interpreters for Dari, Farsi, and Spanish came to get their Joint Replacement Training. Ada asked PASS Nurses Debra Jensen, Phyllis Marinucci, and Nancy Fauth to complete the PASS assessment in person once she was finished meeting with her patients. The patients have been very excited that they could complete their diagnostic visit, their Joint Replacement visit, and get the PASS call done all in the same day. The experience has been so positive that we have expanded this to patients that do not need an interpreter when time permits.
This little project has given the PAT team a chance to try out the in-person assessment that we are planning to do in the clinic. The visual communication helps the patients understand the pre-surgical instructions and helps the nurse assess that the patient understands by seeing their expressions. We have been able to exceed patient's expectations with this in person option. They leave comfortable knowing what to expect and they have the information in their hands so that they can refer to it later if needed. Everyone feels that the patient is safer from the experience.
Teamwork is what made this work. There are actually four departments involved. Ada the Joint Replacement Navigator, Nancy Fauth who fills in as a PASS Nurse borrowed from Radiology, Interpreter Services, and the PASS Team. All work together to give the patient a safe, efficient, and unanticipated experience.
Team members honored with this DAISY Team Award:
Glenn Sheffield, MSN, RN Manager Patient Care Services
Phyllis Marinucci, RN
Cynthia Smith, BSN, RN, CPAN
Debra Jensen, RN, CNOR
Julie Brown, BSN, RN
Monica Hornauer, BSN, RN, CPAN
Teresa May, BSN, RN
Ada Diamantis, BSN, RN Joint Replacement Navigator
Nancy Fauth, BSN, RN Radiology Nurse/PASS Nurse
Rowena Phillips
Sara Garcia
Sherry Johnson