January 2019
Sheena
Burgess
,
RN
Labor & Delivery
Mount Carmel East Hospital
,
OH
United States

 

 

 

Sheena is an excellent nurse who always goes out of her way to help out and is constantly advocating for her patients and as well as others. For instance, Sheena recently had a patient who came in for preterm labor and was admitted to the antepartum unit. The patient, while Sheena was taking care of her, was short of breath and uncomfortable. The patient was so uncomfortable that she couldn't even lay flat for more than a few seconds. Sheena called the doctor multiple times and pushed for testing to try and figure out what was causing the patient to be short of breath. After all the testing was done, the patient was found to have a thymus mass that was causing her symptoms. Sheena then stayed late, and the hospitalist came up at the change of shift to discuss the results with the patient. Sheena also stayed to comfort the patient after she was told about the mass. The patient then went into labor and delivered her baby at 31weeks gestation a day after Sheena took care of her. Once she delivered her baby, she was no longer short of breath and was feeling better, but a biopsy of the mass diagnosed her with an aggressive form of lymphoma that was caught very early due to the diligence of Sheena advocating for her. The patient is now in treatment and receiving chemotherapy for her cancer and has Sheena to thank for saving her life. If it were not for Sheena, the cancer may not have been diagnosed until a later date and the prognosis for the patient at that time could have been poor.