A "DAISY Award recipient is a nurse who personifies the Atrium Health commitment to compassionate care". A role model dedicated to the Atrium mission by playing their part in improving health, elevating hope, and advancing healing for all.
Sally Underwood, BSN, RN, CARN of 6B Medical Observation Unit at Carolinas Medical Center is just such a nurse. Standing 4ft nothing, Sally Underwood has the biggest heart of any nurse that I know. In part, I believe her extraordinary passion and love for the patient comes from personal and past health-related experiences.
Sally Underwood, BSN, RN, CARN has demonstrated that she truly understands the trials and challenges of what a cancer diagnosis can bring to the self and family. She can identify both with the physical and mental struggles one faces in the rollercoaster ride of cancer treatment. Exceptional nurses, like Sally, also recognize that one's adaptability to health-related stressors like those associated with metastatic cancer may be hindered by language and cultural barriers.
Sally Underwood quickly identified with a young Cambodian patient suffering from metastatic cancer. Everyone was functioning under the assumption that the patient was very depressed and suicidal, however, her presentation did not quite sit well with many in the department. Even several providers had noted conflicting answers to assessment questions regarding self-harm and the ongoing difficulty with translation and language service equipment since being admitted. Sally knew there was more to the patient's story. She took the extra time to find out as much as she could in the medical record and quickly realized there may be a misunderstanding involving beliefs of Western medicine practices, various comfort measures, and expression of pain and suffering. Sally's tenacious spirit led her to stick with it until she could get a more accurate understanding of the patient's needs and wants. Not to mention, her nursing role became ever more important in the coordination of language services to ensure proper dialect and accurate translation, re-assessment of needs, and initiation of consultative services. This care management ultimately led to discharge home and later the incorporation of home Hospice services.
Sally Underwood's dedication for the profession of nursing and to patient care directly improved this patient's experience. She simply took the time to understand where the patient was coming from, accurately identified where the patient wanted her care/treatment to go and helped to coordinate the path to achieving it.
"Understanding requires not just a moment of perception, but a continuous awareness, a continuous state of inquiry without conclusion." ~Bruce Lee