Reyn's clinical skill and especially his compassionate care exemplify the kind of nurse that our patients, their families, and our staff recognize as an outstanding role model. He strives to meet the following criteria. These are some of his characteristics:
From the time Reyn was on orientation he has won the respect of all our staff with the effective, compassionate care he gives. While he was on orientation on our sister unit he came to our ITU, Intensive Treatment Unit, to help manage a very psychotic, agitated patient. Reyn de-escalated the situation and the patient cooperated with IM medication. Since that time, Reyn has always responded to any situation on his sister unit and the PSU, across the hall from our 5 West unit, when assistance is needed. One night after hearing a patient in the PSU yelling, Reyn went across the hall to see if he could help. Reyn was recognized by the PSU team for his assistance in calming this patient and for returning a couple of times that night to see how this patient was doing. Reyn always volunteers to respond to BRTs, Behavioral Response Team emergency calls, that are placed from medical floors when a patient is in a behavioral crisis. These calls require the RN responder to stop what they are doing and run to the emergency. This role is assigned to the Charge RN but Reyn never hesitates to go and he has a great ability to calm the situation. Recently when Reyn was at a BRT call he prevented a patient from going into DTs. He quickly assessed that since the patient's CIWA scores were in the high 20s, despite 4mg of Ativan Q1H, the patient needed a MICU transfer. After he asked the RN to call the physician who disagreed with the recommendation, Reyn recommended that the RN call the house supervisor. This resulted in the patient being transferred to the MICU to receive an Ativan and phenobarbital drip.
Reyn is well known in our department for being our Unit Council/Safety Committee Chairperson and leads this committee well, always figuring out ways to recognize staff and our doctors for their commitment to our patients. Since Reyn has a keen eye for safety and pays attention to detail, he leads the council in identifying and implementing ways to improve patient care and safety on our units, like set entry times to visiting hours. Recently he spearheaded the department bake sale which raised almost $600 for patient and unit needs and co-lead staff in funding and serving dinner to the underserved at St Blasé Parish.
Reyn is very compassionate with our patients and doesn't hesitate to spend his own money on them to improve their care and patient satisfaction. Reyn has purchased everything from buying a patient a bar of Ivory soap when his was lost (that Reyn went out and got on his lunchtime), to buying a patient a knee brace to decrease his pain and has many times paid for patients' prescriptions for those patients who were soon to be discharged, and could not afford their prescription co-pays, because he knows that patients who stay on their medications have a higher quality of life and a decreased recidivism. Reyn also went 30 blocks out of his way home, after a 13 hour night shift, to return belongings to a patient that got left behind.
Reyn doesn't hesitate to coach others in his kind, easy-going and assertive manner to improve safety and patient care. He has been an excellent Coach of our latest RN orientee and has spent hours of his own time creating a new orientee packet that includes everything from procedures and common diagnoses in Behavioral Health to frequently used phone numbers to ease the new RN into our department. He is currently working on a list of the most frequently given medications, purposes and side effects in our department to again help new RNs become safer practitioners and to improve patient outcomes. He uses his own time to research patient conditions and best practices, most recently CIWA usage.
Since Reyn is very intelligent, a great problem solver, a good time manager and consistently asks peers throughout their shift if they need anything, he is an excellent Charge RN. All of the staff love working with Reyn because he is such a great team player! He is the model for responsiveness.
Given that Reyn takes his time with his patients and truly listens to them he is often mentioned in patient satisfaction surveys and leader rounding with associates. He is also excellent about medicating patients to manage their acute symptoms thereby decreasing their LOS.
For all these reasons and so much more I truly believe Reyn is a DAISY Nurse!