Donna Dacunha
December 2012
Donna
Dacunha
,
RN, BSN, CNN
Dialysis
Trinitas Regional Medical Center
Elizabeth
,
NJ
United States
Donna has been with Trinitas Regional Medical Center for over 25 years and is currently the Clinical Coordinator for the Williamson Street Dialysis Center caring for both inpatient and outpatient renal patients.
Donna is perhaps the most empathic provider that I have encountered. She has a gift for caring for and communicating to all patients, especially the most challenging. Not only her patients, but patients from other centers know her, trust her, and ask for her by name. She is a resource for both new and experienced nurses within the unit. She has a strong rapport and trust with the nephrologists. Her service to her patients does not stop there. When other hospital units have difficulty or questions regarding renal patients, Donna is who they call. And when they do, Donna goes to them, sees the patient, and treats the patient as her own.
Donna is certified in nephrology and attends and encourages others to attend continuing education classes. In addition Donna is the transplant coordinator for the center. Over the past year Donna has developed new skills in managing the overall health for the chronic patients at Williamson Street Dialysis. She has overseen a major improvement in clinical outcomes on her unit especially in adequacy and anemia management indicators.
With Donna there is never a question if it can be done, but rather how we will accomplish it. There never a task too great that Donna can handle. A perfect example is the recent response to Hurricane Sandy.
Donna organized her unit to open on Sunday, a normal day off and Monday so that all patients could be treated before the storm hit. On Monday Night, Donna covered inpatient on call services for a co-worker that did not make it to work. On Tuesday, Donna helped open the inpatient dialysis unit as an observational unit for patients from the ED. While this was occurring, as the only dialysis nurse in the house, she treated multiple dialysis patients in need of urgent dialysis until relieved at 9pm that night. The next two days Donna returned and treated her patients, as well as taking on the majority of patients from Trinitas Linden Dialysis, which was closed due to the hurricane, into her unit. Her philosophy was simple, patients needed to be cared for and she had the ability and knowledge to care for them and nothing would stop that.
Donna is perhaps the most empathic provider that I have encountered. She has a gift for caring for and communicating to all patients, especially the most challenging. Not only her patients, but patients from other centers know her, trust her, and ask for her by name. She is a resource for both new and experienced nurses within the unit. She has a strong rapport and trust with the nephrologists. Her service to her patients does not stop there. When other hospital units have difficulty or questions regarding renal patients, Donna is who they call. And when they do, Donna goes to them, sees the patient, and treats the patient as her own.
Donna is certified in nephrology and attends and encourages others to attend continuing education classes. In addition Donna is the transplant coordinator for the center. Over the past year Donna has developed new skills in managing the overall health for the chronic patients at Williamson Street Dialysis. She has overseen a major improvement in clinical outcomes on her unit especially in adequacy and anemia management indicators.
With Donna there is never a question if it can be done, but rather how we will accomplish it. There never a task too great that Donna can handle. A perfect example is the recent response to Hurricane Sandy.
Donna organized her unit to open on Sunday, a normal day off and Monday so that all patients could be treated before the storm hit. On Monday Night, Donna covered inpatient on call services for a co-worker that did not make it to work. On Tuesday, Donna helped open the inpatient dialysis unit as an observational unit for patients from the ED. While this was occurring, as the only dialysis nurse in the house, she treated multiple dialysis patients in need of urgent dialysis until relieved at 9pm that night. The next two days Donna returned and treated her patients, as well as taking on the majority of patients from Trinitas Linden Dialysis, which was closed due to the hurricane, into her unit. Her philosophy was simple, patients needed to be cared for and she had the ability and knowledge to care for them and nothing would stop that.