Kim
Cooper
July 2012
Kim
Cooper
,
RN
Digestive Medicine 75
UCHealth Memorial Hospital
Colorado Springs
,
CO
United States
I nominate Kim Cooper, RN on 75 Digestive Medicine, for the DAISY Award because she is outstanding. She was out of nursing for 28 years, took the RN refresher course and made the decision to come to 75. That was the beginning of her growth in nursing. In 2010 she finished her BSN, in 2011 she was certified in medical surgical nursing (first on our floor and we were proud of her), and in July she will start her Masters in Nursing Leadership and Management.
As soon as she started to work on our unit, she got involved in the unit practice council, first as a member, then co-chair and finally chair and helped implement Relationship Based Care (RBC) and Primary Nursing. She shares the knowledge and experience with us as a relief charge nurse. She is good at what she does. Everybody sees her on our unit. She makes sure that rounds on patients are done and the most important, that our staff is helped throughout their day. She helps with turning patients, passing medications, starting difficult IVs and even helps the patient care tech (PCT) pick up trash and dirty laundry. Kim likes to work with PCTs as a team. She is very proactive in preventing falls and checking skin to prevent pressure ulcers. It doesn’t matter if she is at the bedside, or as a charge nurse, she greets anyone that comes to our floor. She tells new patients as they are wheeling in, “We are sorry you are in the hospital, but we are glad you came to 75. We will take great care of you”.
RBC is a part of who she is in nursing. She works hard to develop a relationship with her patients and families. She is always their advocate. Here is one of the examples how that works in her everyday care:
The family of one of our patients stated that they thought something wasn’t right with the patient. Kim was very proactive and made a few phone calls to update the physician about the patient’s status and the patient was moved to the ICU. She communicated with the patient and family her concerns and acknowledged the family’s concern regarding the patient’s health. She followed up with the patient and family in the ICU, which they really appreciated.
Another time a patient was going to go to surgery and she found out that the patient wasn’t going to be returning to our unit. The patient really wanted to stay because he told her that she gave him excellent care and she communicated with him plus she kept the pain under control. She visited the patient after surgery on another floor to check on him and he and his wife were very glad to see her.
Kim is also a member of the IS team, Employee Advisory Council, Primary Nursing, RBC and AIDET. Kim writes the 75 Digestive Medicine newsletters and has been working with the Press Ganey information and how to improve our floor. Kim has taught classes for our new GI series and Med/Surg certification.
As soon as she started to work on our unit, she got involved in the unit practice council, first as a member, then co-chair and finally chair and helped implement Relationship Based Care (RBC) and Primary Nursing. She shares the knowledge and experience with us as a relief charge nurse. She is good at what she does. Everybody sees her on our unit. She makes sure that rounds on patients are done and the most important, that our staff is helped throughout their day. She helps with turning patients, passing medications, starting difficult IVs and even helps the patient care tech (PCT) pick up trash and dirty laundry. Kim likes to work with PCTs as a team. She is very proactive in preventing falls and checking skin to prevent pressure ulcers. It doesn’t matter if she is at the bedside, or as a charge nurse, she greets anyone that comes to our floor. She tells new patients as they are wheeling in, “We are sorry you are in the hospital, but we are glad you came to 75. We will take great care of you”.
RBC is a part of who she is in nursing. She works hard to develop a relationship with her patients and families. She is always their advocate. Here is one of the examples how that works in her everyday care:
The family of one of our patients stated that they thought something wasn’t right with the patient. Kim was very proactive and made a few phone calls to update the physician about the patient’s status and the patient was moved to the ICU. She communicated with the patient and family her concerns and acknowledged the family’s concern regarding the patient’s health. She followed up with the patient and family in the ICU, which they really appreciated.
Another time a patient was going to go to surgery and she found out that the patient wasn’t going to be returning to our unit. The patient really wanted to stay because he told her that she gave him excellent care and she communicated with him plus she kept the pain under control. She visited the patient after surgery on another floor to check on him and he and his wife were very glad to see her.
Kim is also a member of the IS team, Employee Advisory Council, Primary Nursing, RBC and AIDET. Kim writes the 75 Digestive Medicine newsletters and has been working with the Press Ganey information and how to improve our floor. Kim has taught classes for our new GI series and Med/Surg certification.