Tara Hunt was nominated for the DAISY award by a nurse whom she oriented to her unit as a preceptor. Tara went beyond expectations to assure this new nurse was challenged but not overloaded in his assignments. She assigned herself the most challenging patients, and used these situations to prepare this new nurse to work independently after orientation. This new nurse wrote how he had the full support of Tara. He wrote, "every day she was with me". Ms. Hunt took extra time to train him in areas where he had little experience. She took the time to show him how to hook up monitors and reviewed telemetry rhythms with him. She was available to answer questions and review his work.
One instance specifically stood out when this new nurse found himself calling for a code on a patient who was bleeding from his tracheostomy. In a matter of seconds Tara called the code, was in full protective gear and working by his side to save this patient's life. She ran the code smoothly, all the while calming the patient, and all involved benefited from her expertise and fast appropriate actions.
Tara demonstrated how teamwork can change the dynamics of work new nurses. She is a valuable resource who makes herself available to her unit. She demonstrated that by volunteering to work on projects and committees to improve patient care. The new nurse completed his orientation motivated to learn, because of Tara's influence.