June 2018
Stacie
Lee
,
RN, BSN
Medicine/Telemetry
Harborview Medical Center, UW Medicine
Seattle
,
WA
United States
My patient, a 96-year-old male status post elbow surgery, was discharging to a Skilled Nursing Facility. The splint was concerning, and the patient had a lot of hand swelling. I was very busy when Stacie called and I could have been more receptive to her concerns, but she was politely persistent and didn't hang up until I agreed to see it before he left. When I came to evaluate the splint, it was indeed in bad shape and it almost certainly would have caused skin breakdown if he had discharged with it. Great pick up on an ortho problem by a medicine nurse and great patient advocacy without being adversarial! Thank you.