Susan Mathew
August 2017
Susan
Mathew
,
RN
5th Floor
Broward Health Imperial Point
Fort Lauderdale
,
FL
United States
As nurses, we always refer to teamwork and good relationships with our co-workers for effective patient care. However, this does not happen all the time. Susan surprised me and demonstrated how teamwork can save patient's life by providing a better quality of care.
Two weeks ago I floated on this unit and I had a patient who was declining. Susan was my mentor in the nursing situation at that very critical time. I cannot be more grateful to her for helping me save my patient's life. Just at the beginning of the shift, I noticed something wrong with my patient. She had an adnominal surgery a few days ago and was complaining of abdominal pain radiated to her back and shortness of breath. Her abdomen was distended with hypoactive bowel sounds. In addition, she was having incontinence of diarrhea. We had to clean and change her almost every 15 minutes to provide comfort.
I called the admitting physician to inform him about what was going on with the patient to get orders and make sure we attended to the patient's needs in a timely manner.
The Physician ordered Morphine 0.5mg iv Q3.hrs PRN for pain and to monitor patient's oxygen saturation. In addition, he ordered a chest X-Ray as well. As time was passing by the patient became very anxious and her O2 sat dropped to 78% on 3L O2 through a nasal cannula. Susan was in the patient's room with me for any nursing interventions. Instantly, she called a code rapid response to have the rapid response team on board.
Upon arrival the hospitalist physician gave us orders to stat diuretics, EKG, repeat chest X-Ray and transfer the patient to ICU for a higher level of care. While I stayed at the bedside to monitor patient's status, Susan was able to put all the orders in the computer for me and notified again the primary physician to let him know about the changes in the patient's condition.
Susan went on to help me transfer the patient to the unit; when she noticed that I was exhausted, she asked me to go back on the floor to take care of the rest of the team. She even took the patient to the CT scan department for further diagnostic testing.
Susan is a great nurse, caring and compassionate. We are lucky to have nurses like Susan to care for our population.
Note: This is Susan's 2nd DAISY Award!
Two weeks ago I floated on this unit and I had a patient who was declining. Susan was my mentor in the nursing situation at that very critical time. I cannot be more grateful to her for helping me save my patient's life. Just at the beginning of the shift, I noticed something wrong with my patient. She had an adnominal surgery a few days ago and was complaining of abdominal pain radiated to her back and shortness of breath. Her abdomen was distended with hypoactive bowel sounds. In addition, she was having incontinence of diarrhea. We had to clean and change her almost every 15 minutes to provide comfort.
I called the admitting physician to inform him about what was going on with the patient to get orders and make sure we attended to the patient's needs in a timely manner.
The Physician ordered Morphine 0.5mg iv Q3.hrs PRN for pain and to monitor patient's oxygen saturation. In addition, he ordered a chest X-Ray as well. As time was passing by the patient became very anxious and her O2 sat dropped to 78% on 3L O2 through a nasal cannula. Susan was in the patient's room with me for any nursing interventions. Instantly, she called a code rapid response to have the rapid response team on board.
Upon arrival the hospitalist physician gave us orders to stat diuretics, EKG, repeat chest X-Ray and transfer the patient to ICU for a higher level of care. While I stayed at the bedside to monitor patient's status, Susan was able to put all the orders in the computer for me and notified again the primary physician to let him know about the changes in the patient's condition.
Susan went on to help me transfer the patient to the unit; when she noticed that I was exhausted, she asked me to go back on the floor to take care of the rest of the team. She even took the patient to the CT scan department for further diagnostic testing.
Susan is a great nurse, caring and compassionate. We are lucky to have nurses like Susan to care for our population.
Note: This is Susan's 2nd DAISY Award!