Kathryn goes above and beyond every day for her patients and her co-workers. She consistently meets all the criteria of excellence, compassion, teamwork, advocacy, critical thinking, and patient family focus. I got to know Kathy when she stepped up to be co-chair of the Retention Council. She has grown so much and become quite a loyal leader. She has been involved and helped run many community outreach activities such as food drives for the Galveston Food Bank, Beat the Heat initiative for the Luke Society, where we provided bags with a water bottle, hat, sunscreen, lip balm and sunglasses for the homeless, Back to School Drive to supply backpacks to military children, Christmas drive for Luke Society gathering socks and deodorant- just to name a few activities. Many times, she comes in on her day off to ensure that she leads meetings and collects items for our drives. She gently encourages others to participates and leads by example.
She also is a member of our Clinical Ladder Review Panel that evaluates all peer advancement packets. All these activities are done above and beyond her daily duties as a floor nurse on the Transplant/Gyn/Onc Unit. She is a true leader, she is a charge nurse and also a preceptor to new nurses and students.
As a bedside nurse on this unit, she is a kind and compassionate nurse who always goes above and beyond to meet all the needs of her patients. Her patients love her and she is so calm and compassionate. She had one patient who was in a lot of pain from a uterine abscess, the doctor ordered Norco and morphine. The meds were not working and the patient was getting upset because her pain was not managed. So, Kathy tried alternative measures, she took extra time to help her, she walked with the patient, got her in a warm shower and used lavender essential oils in an infuser and gave her herbal tea that she bought. The patient was able to stop taking the morphine and decreased the use of Norco to only twice a day versus every 6 hours and then the patient stated how she felt better and calmer and did not need all those narcotics. It's the little things she did that made a huge difference.
Staff also love her and have good things to say about her, one nurse told me she is so compassionate and always a steady calm nurse who is so nice to everyone. Staff also call her the Queen of Baking because she always brings in goodies for her co-workers. I have also seen her compassion first hand. Kathy lost her mom last year and it was hard on her. Then, when my mom passed she reached out to me and she was so supportive and compassionate. Her empathy was above and beyond, it made a huge impact on me. That's just the kind of woman she is. Kathy always demonstrates excellence in nursing and is truly a DAISY Nurse.