Jenness Kooiman is smart, kind, skilled and hard-working. She is attentive to her patients and an expert in prioritizing. She is conscientious and vigilant in watching for and noticing significant (and subtle) changes in her critical patients. She is always thorough in her hand-offs and as a result is often one of the last RNs to leave the department as she ensures that there are no "gaps" in care. Foremost in her mind is ensuring her patients receive the care they deserve.
One example of her extraordinary compassion was demonstrated recently with a difficult discharge. Jenness was an absolute star in discharging a Pashto-only-speaking, nearly blind Afghani refugee with no family, living in the shelter system. This patient needed meds as part of a complicated discharge. Rather than directing the patient to the pharmacy, she tubed the prescription down to the pharmacy, kept the patient in the ED so she could work with him to distinguish these four bottles from each other, got SW involved to find the case manager and called DESC herself to see what could be done about his broken glasses (nearly blind - minimal vision in one eye). She also identified that the ophthalmology appt. was too far off and that the patient would not be able to arrange an earlier appt. Given his significant issues as well she even tried to see if ophthalmology could fix his glasses. Quite honestly, she was so amazing on a busy day to realize that there were still some significant coordination of care issues and finessed the system as best as it would finesse.
We are so grateful and amazed watching the patient advocacy and professionalism Jenness models daily. She inspires us and makes this a great place to work. She provides compassionate care and maintains a sense of humor, making sure her co-workers laugh every day (an amazing feat in our environment!) Harborview Emergency Services is lucky to have her here.