Andrea is especially skilled in caring for patients and their families during end-of-life care. During a recent assignment to a patient who had been on comfort-care for weeks, Andrea demonstrated expert and compassionate nursing care. Over the course of her multiple shifts with this patient, she was able to identify subtle changes in his clinical presentation and was able to interpret his confused and often incoherent requests. Almost instinctively, she was able to respond to his care needs despite his inability to express them as he became increasingly delirious. When he became unable to swallow his long-acting narcotics, Andrea was unremitting in her advocacy for him when collaborating with the physician care team and obtained orders for a morphine drip. Andrea knew that he had no friends or family to stay with him, so when she recognized his progressing pallor and irregular breathing she stayed at his side for hours. He was afraid and tearful, so Andrea held his hand and reassured him that he was safe and that it was ok to go. She calmed him and stayed with him so that he would not die alone.
Among many examples of Andrea's exceptionalism in compassionate care includes a recent assignment to a patient admitted for a lengthy chemotherapy regimen. This patient had taken a shower between chemo infusions and her Kindle E-Reader was sent down the laundry chute with her bedding by mistake and broken. When Andrea arrived for her night shift, the patient was devastated and struggling to cope with her anxiety and the stress of hospitalization. Andrea gifted her own personal Kindle to her! The patient was so grateful and was able to resume her reading and stress reduction.
Andrea regularly provides exceptional service to her patients and their families. In one example in which she went above-and-beyond, Andrea cared for a patient admitted for exacerbation of delirium and hallucinations. The patient arrived at the hospital with her adopted daughter, who was increasingly distraught while observing her mother's erratic and distressing confusion. The patient soon thereafter progressed in her delirium and ceased being able to recognize her. This poor daughter was saddened and hurt by her mother's behaviors and she explained to Andrea that she had been working so hard to keep her mother in her home and out of nursing facilities. The daughter then became inconsolable and went home for a brief respite. Later, towards the end of the shift, the patient had a moment of clarity and expressed to Andrea how proud of her daughter she was. She explained that she had always wanted a large family of six or more children, but was unable and ended up adopting her daughter. The patient told Andrea that her daughter made up for any number of kids she might have wanted and that she felt extremely lucky to have her. The patient became tearful and admitted that she had never told her daughter how proud and thankful for her she was and stressed how badly she wished she had told her before. Thereafter, the patient resumed delirium. It was Andrea's last shift that week and she would not see the daughter again, so she wrote a letter to her describing the conversation with her mother and left it on the bedside table. Several weeks later, the daughter sought out Andrea and tearfully expressed her gratitude to her. She was so moved by the letter that she had been carrying it in her purse ever since!
Andrea is dedicated to on-going development in her nursing practice as well as to advancing the organizational goals of her department and the greater hospital. She demonstrates her commitment to continual improvement in nursing practice by maintaining multiple professional certifications in her specialty (OCN & CMSRN) as well as by regularly attending regional nursing conferences and chemotherapy seminars. She enhances the performance of her unit by precepting new staff, serving as an on-going mentor to developing RNs and instructing port-a-cath access classes. Andrea is an invaluable member of the 5N Oncology team and worthy of DAISY Award recognition.