Pattie and I have been working together on the new NICU floor plates for the last year and I often work with her on a shift or follow her. It has become incredibly evident to me throughout even just the last year what an amazing resource and caregiver Pattie is. Not only is Pattie an incredibly high-level thinker and patient advocate who has been with CHW from the old hospital, but she is also a 35-year veteran RN come March 2020 who throughout that entire time has dedicated her career to CHW. She has served as a bedside nurse throughout that time in multiple leadership roles, a supervisor, a charge RN, and a resource for many generations. She's served on the professional development council, and on committees and teams well beyond my level of knowledge. Pattie is the real deal around the NICU. Pattie is smart; Pattie is detail-oriented and self-educated; Pattie is one of the backbones of bedside nurses in my unit that stands up for all of us.
But that's not even half of why I'm nominating Pattie. Pattie has been such an amazing patient advocate for the last 6 months. Pattie consistently picks up primary patients. Pattie picks up the primary patients who no one else wants to care for, who have difficult families or are going to foster care, with complex medical needs. She is the angel these babies need and do not have, and she does it in stride. She is incredibly loving and caring but a fierce force for each one as an individual. In this year alone, Pattie has taken care of 2 very complex patients requiring foster care and major teaching for discharge. She has sat in on care conference after care conference, making sure every detail is complete. Pattie makes sure the next shift is competent and comfortable following her.
The most recent patient Pattie has been caring for was an ex 25-week patient who is going to medical foster care with a trach and G-tube. Not only did Pattie take care of him from the beginning of his stay, but she has also coordinated all of his care from that day forward. She has been at his side from 1lb 14oz to nearly 14lbs. She has been there as he grew, for multiple intubations and extubation attempts, feeding tube placement, trach placement, and been a literal parent for him herself. Not all babies with his diagnosis do half as well as he has, and I can say with the utmost confidence that his appropriate neurodevelopment is because of Pattie's care. Pattie makes sure he has every single thing he needs down to the smallest details because that's the nurse she is, and the caregiver we all should be. Coming into my shift today, having performed 12 hours of independent cares teaching after weeks of foster parent teaching, Pattie has prepared everything for her primary's discharge this weekend, down to his home care schedule, all in the same detail. She makes sure we all know what he needs, and how best to care for said patient. She loves each patient she touches, and I know she will continue to be a fierce advocate for the next patient she signs up for as a primary nurse.
Pattie is truly a DAISY Nurse.