There are many exceptional nurses at SPUH but Catherine consistently provides extraordinary care to infants and their families. She embodies the characteristics of the professional nurse including, kindness, compassion, empathy and nursing scholarship. She is forward-thinking and applies critical thinking to contribute towards the best clinical outcomes for her patients.
She has made significant clinical contributions and practice changes in our unit to provide the infant with the most appropriate developmental care and to provide the families a sense of comfort during the most difficult time of their infant's disease process. With a passion for delivering the best care at the bedside, she spearheaded a committee to bring about a cue-based infant feeding protocol, an infant-driven oral feeding protocol, based on developmental cues.
Behind the gentle quietness of her personality is a coach and mentor to both novice and expert nurses. She embodies the true spirit of nursing's core principles in leadership. She precepts our new interns. She has been the chair of the Unit Nurse Practice Council, helping to research and implement best practices based on the evidence. She disseminates and freely shares her knowledge among her colleagues. She is well respected by her peers.
She is one of the instructors for the NICU parent education classes. She has created an instructional video for infant car seat safety.
As a nurse goes from novice to expert, one can choose to coast along or really rise up and cultivate the next generation of nurses through precepting, mentoring and sharing of knowledge. This is critical in preparing the next generation of nurses to deliver compassionate care in an ever-changing healthcare system.