Sierra Wood
March 2022
Sierra
Wood
,
RN
Recovery Room
St. Louis Children's Hospital
Saint Louis
,
MO
United States
There are many ways Sierra impacted the hospital this day, but the one that shines most is for that patient who needed emergent surgery.
Weekend shifts around here have been very busy and our departments have been short-staffed. This particular weekend, we were down one call person and a couple of our call teams had worked 24 hours straight the day before. We started our shift with 2 cases (one being covid +).
Sierra, from the start of the day, took it upon herself to put on scrubs and come back to the OR to check on us and make sure we were okay. She offered to take our stretchers away and brought us floor beds. We followed those 2 cases with one procedure. During that procedure, the trauma pagers went off. We had 2 patients coming into the EU, both with GSWs. We only had 3 in house people here, so as the free person went to the EU - they called in our one general call person. We shortly got notified that one of the GSW patients would be coming directly to the OR for emergent surgery while the other was stable. Sierra, without being asked, came into the OR that we were already underway with a procedure and asked how she could be of help. She happily took over circulating our procedure so that our OR nurse could go to our trauma room and begin opening items while waiting for our other call person to arrive. Sierra stayed with me in my room and took direction to circulate. She then took my patient with me to recovery, got a quick report, and sent me to the trauma room. After recovering her patient, she came back to the trauma room to ask what she could do to help us. Sierra goes above and beyond.
Without any complaints, she is always happy to help out, even if it is something she is unfamiliar with (for example, staffing the operating room). There are many ways Sierra impacted the hospital this day, but the one that shines most is for that patient who needed emergent surgery. While our call team was on their way in, Sierra allowed another operating room staff member to get freed up to begin opening and setting up for the trauma. As it is not known if there would have been a delay if this didn't happen, there definitely was not a delay getting our trauma patient to surgery all because of Sierra's help. She jumped into an unfamiliar role, rocked it, and continued to lend a helping hand as soon as she could.
I have been told that this is the normal "Sierra work ethic", but witnessing it on my own, during a busy off shift was refreshing. Especially during a time of nursing burnout and exhaustion. Thanks for doing what is right for our kids, Sierra. The OR appreciates you so much!
Sierra, from the start of the day, took it upon herself to put on scrubs and come back to the OR to check on us and make sure we were okay. She offered to take our stretchers away and brought us floor beds. We followed those 2 cases with one procedure. During that procedure, the trauma pagers went off. We had 2 patients coming into the EU, both with GSWs. We only had 3 in house people here, so as the free person went to the EU - they called in our one general call person. We shortly got notified that one of the GSW patients would be coming directly to the OR for emergent surgery while the other was stable. Sierra, without being asked, came into the OR that we were already underway with a procedure and asked how she could be of help. She happily took over circulating our procedure so that our OR nurse could go to our trauma room and begin opening items while waiting for our other call person to arrive. Sierra stayed with me in my room and took direction to circulate. She then took my patient with me to recovery, got a quick report, and sent me to the trauma room. After recovering her patient, she came back to the trauma room to ask what she could do to help us. Sierra goes above and beyond.
Without any complaints, she is always happy to help out, even if it is something she is unfamiliar with (for example, staffing the operating room). There are many ways Sierra impacted the hospital this day, but the one that shines most is for that patient who needed emergent surgery. While our call team was on their way in, Sierra allowed another operating room staff member to get freed up to begin opening and setting up for the trauma. As it is not known if there would have been a delay if this didn't happen, there definitely was not a delay getting our trauma patient to surgery all because of Sierra's help. She jumped into an unfamiliar role, rocked it, and continued to lend a helping hand as soon as she could.
I have been told that this is the normal "Sierra work ethic", but witnessing it on my own, during a busy off shift was refreshing. Especially during a time of nursing burnout and exhaustion. Thanks for doing what is right for our kids, Sierra. The OR appreciates you so much!