Alison Woltman
February 2018
Alison
Woltman
,
MSN, RN-BC
Cardiac Telemetry
Newton Medical Center
Newton
,
NJ
United States
I am Alison's direct supervisor and act as the charge nurse. I am able to observe all the nurses, assist them when they need, and have a lot of direct contact with them. Over the course of one week, I was able to observe Alison be one of the best patient advocates I have ever witnessed.
We had an elderly patient who came into the hospital and after a few days of observation on our unit needed emergency surgery. Post-op she had gone to a higher level of care but eventually made it back to our unit. This is an important fact because we were able to see the patient through all parts of her hospital stay. Before surgery, she was awake, alert, and oriented, but when she was transferred back to our unit, she was not the same person. She slowly declined every day and got to the point where she was no longer able to communicate and groaned in pain any time we moved her the slightest bit. The family was present at the bedside for a few hours most days and they were involved in her care and decision making. It was obvious to the nursing staff that the family had little knowledge in the health care system and was very unsure of decision making, we knew they would really benefit from having some guidance from necessary staff. During the patient's final week on our unit, Alison spent most of her working day nonstop calling doctors and different departments to help transition this patient to palliative care or hospice. Unfortunately, there were many different doctor's teams seeing this patient and the patient, family, and staff on our floor were given the run around a lot. It seemed as if no one wanted to bring up the "H" word to the family, and certainly, no one wanted to be the responsible party for calling in the palliative consult. Alison rose to the occasion and spoke at length with the family, providing compassionate support and educating the family of the situation. Finally, after Alison spent three shifts working on this issue and advocating for her patient and her family, the patient was finally transferred to Simon 3 where she peacefully passed away.
We had an elderly patient who came into the hospital and after a few days of observation on our unit needed emergency surgery. Post-op she had gone to a higher level of care but eventually made it back to our unit. This is an important fact because we were able to see the patient through all parts of her hospital stay. Before surgery, she was awake, alert, and oriented, but when she was transferred back to our unit, she was not the same person. She slowly declined every day and got to the point where she was no longer able to communicate and groaned in pain any time we moved her the slightest bit. The family was present at the bedside for a few hours most days and they were involved in her care and decision making. It was obvious to the nursing staff that the family had little knowledge in the health care system and was very unsure of decision making, we knew they would really benefit from having some guidance from necessary staff. During the patient's final week on our unit, Alison spent most of her working day nonstop calling doctors and different departments to help transition this patient to palliative care or hospice. Unfortunately, there were many different doctor's teams seeing this patient and the patient, family, and staff on our floor were given the run around a lot. It seemed as if no one wanted to bring up the "H" word to the family, and certainly, no one wanted to be the responsible party for calling in the palliative consult. Alison rose to the occasion and spoke at length with the family, providing compassionate support and educating the family of the situation. Finally, after Alison spent three shifts working on this issue and advocating for her patient and her family, the patient was finally transferred to Simon 3 where she peacefully passed away.