I nominate Stephanie Paterson RN for this award not only because she has such a gentle caring way with her patients and her colleagues but because I feel she went above and beyond for one of her patients that she recently cared for on the Observation Unit.

We had an elderly gentleman on 4 North that was admitted as an observation patient for Chest pain. He was brought to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital from the airport by ambulance. He was visiting from Haiti and was not only traveling by himself but did not speak any English. He stayed overnight on the observation unit until he was ruled out from having any coronary event. The next evening Stephanie was caring for him and there was an order written to discharge the patient. It was too late to call any discharge planners because they had gone home already. Stephanie got right on the phone to US AIR to make arrangements for a flight to Boston for the patient. This was to be his destination the day before but they had to land his plane in Philly because of his illness. She spent a few hours trying to find him a flight that would not leave him stranded in the airport overnight. Stephanie was able to get a flight that evening and then used the language phone to communicate to the patient what he should expect for his trip to Boston. She also was able to contact his daughter in Boston and relay all the flight information so she could meet him when he landed.

Stephanie then wrote up his entire itinerary for his travels in English. She explained who he was that he was traveling alone and spoke no English. She indicated on the itinerary where he should go in the airport to retrieve his luggage that he had left the day before and also indicated the gate Number and terminal as well as the flight number that he would need to be at in order to be on time for his flight. She also wrote down names of airport staff that he should contact when he got to the airport so they would be there to direct him safely. She had this all written down for him so that he could just hand off the communication to the airport staff and they would direct him to where he needed to go. She even went down and talked to the taxi cab driver and gave him the information to make sure the patient was taken to the correct terminal at the airport. (Knowing her she probably paid for the cab ride)

Stephanie is such a caring person who went above and beyond for this patient. She did an extraordinary job of communicating to the patient and family but also took the time to inform the airlines of the needs of this passenger. She had everything ready and organized for him so there would be no confusion to anyone that came in contact with him where he needed to go in case he got lost. Stephanie made sure the letter was attached to the patient before he left.