It is my privilege and honor to nominate Rachel Pergolese for the DAISY Award. Rachel is a compassionate nurse with excellent critical thinking skills, which she demonstrated the night she was my nurse. I was admitted to LGH for treatment of pneumonia and high fevers complicated by potential Taxol pulmonary toxicity. Rachel was the nurse assigned to me during the second night of my stay. Late evening, my respiratory status began to decline with increased respiratory effort and oxygen consumption. Rachel quickly assessed my condition, increased my oxygen to 6 Liters/min, and obtained a STAT pulmonary treatment. The increased oxygen and pulmonary treatment initially improved my respiratory effort. Nonetheless, she continued to reassess my pulmonary status for an adequate response to the increase in oxygen throughout the late evening.
Around midnight, I awoke to find Rachel and another nurse at my bedside asking me how I was feeling. She observed that my oxygen saturations were decreasing despite the increase in oxygen. She listened to my lungs and noted increased crackles, so she placed me on a non-rebreather to improve my oxygen saturation and ease my respiratory distress. Rachel was very calm through all of this and reassured me that she would keep a close eye on me throughout her shift. I fell back to sleep and awoke around 0300 to find Rachel at my bedside. She reassessed my lungs and at that time noted crackles throughout my lungs and mild edema in my feet and ankles. She decided to turn off the Intravenous Fluids immediately in case I was fluid overloaded. She then called the on-call physician who ordered a PCXR to rule out CHF.
Throughout the night, Rachel kept a close eye on me. This was a scary time for me and Rachel showed kindness and compassion to me. She listened to my concerns, reassured me that she was never far away, and would be watching me closely throughout the night. She opened the window's privacy shade, so she could see me and I could see her. When I awoke throughout the night, it was so comforting to see Rachel sitting at the desk outside of my room, ready to respond to at any moment. I had complete confidence in her professional skills.
I stayed on the non-rebreather throughout the night, and the PCXR was obtained around 0530. The results came back with CHF, flash pulmonary edema. Rachel and the hospitalist came into my room to discuss a transfer to ICU. However, I asked if they would give me a diuretic to see if I would respond and show improvement in my respiratory status before transferring me to the ICU. Rachel supported this decision and so did the physician. I appreciated Rachel listening and being my advocate. I improved on the diuretics and by the next night, Rachel was impressed with how much I had improved.
Rachel is a professional nurse who demonstrated the ability to care for a complex patient in a competent and compassionate manner. As my husband and I both stated, Rachel is a Rock Star! I don't know what I would have done without her that night. Thanks to Rachel for the excellent care you provided and the support you gave to my husband. Thank you for genuinely caring for us!