Lisa gives superb care to all the patients she comes in contact with on a daily basis. One patient, in particular, is a very complicated BMT post-transplant patient who received twice daily outpatient magnesium infusions continuously for several weeks. This patient was staying in a local hotel during his treatment as he is from Somerset and had appointments every day at 0730 and 1730. Lisa was his primary nurse and she worked tirelessly every day to get all his needs met in regards to sliding scale electrolyte orders, prescription refills and medication changes. This patient seemed to have a new issue each day. One such issue was 4 + pitting pedal edema, but his case was complicated since his electrolyte status was already compromised from treatment. She spoke with the NPs daily after completing her nursing assessment to notify them of any changes from the previous assessment. Most days, she made several calls to ensure that he got all his needs met.
One day the patient had a doctor's appointment after he finished his morning infusion. The charge nurse asked him if he would get a full head-to-toe exam in the clinic by the doctor or NP and he promptly responded, "they will look me over, but not like Lisa does". The patient was disappointed on the days that Lisa wasn't working. She would leave notes so the covering nurse would know the plan. Lisa had a great relationship with not only the patient but his wife and daughter as well.
She is one of the biggest patient advocates that we know. Lisa goes above and beyond for all her patients. Her coworkers often accuse Lisa of "nursing" her patients to death but we say this in jest as she ensures that all their needs are met. Not only does she attend to their physical needs, she responds to their psychosocial needs as well. She readily consults the integrative medicine team, dietician and social workers for any patient need either current or perceived to cause an issue in the future.
Lisa never gives herself enough credit for her superb compassionate nursing. We wish everyone could work with and learn from a coworker like Lisa, who gives her all, every day to each patient.