Christina is a registered nurse on the progressive cardiac care unit, 9 South. She provides direct care at the bedside to patients, acts as a charge nurse, and is a clinical coach for new nursing associates. On days when she provides direct patient care, she is responsible for 3-4 patients to start, with admissions and discharges occurring throughout her shift. When in charge of the floor, she is responsible for 11 other nurses, 6-7 PCA's, and all 44 patients. I am the clinical practice specialist on 9 South and am new to my current role. I have worked with Christina for the past 3 months and have been awestruck by her interactions with patients and other associates.
Christina strives to be a role model for the unit. She thinks ahead for her patients, anticipating their needs and encompassing their personal health care goals into the goals for her day. She is patient and family oriented, and sees the importance of patient and family participation in plan of care development. When acting as a charge nurse, she anticipates the needs of the unit. She looks at staffing, trending, and audits while maintaining patient safety. She utilizes excellent communication skills when leadership is not present, keeping the manager, assistant managers, and myself informed of arising issues and situations.
She is excellent at comforting her patients, multi-tasking between critical patients, and being a team player to other nurses and care partners who require assistance. Her outstanding professional accomplishments include clinical coaching, foley insertion super user, charge RN, advancement to the clinician II status, and participation in unit council.
What inspired me to nominate Christina for this award is that she integrates her nursing practice and the goals of the organization into one. She recently saw that a young patient was upset regarding a new cancer diagnosis and wanted to do something to cheer her up. She made an "animal" out of a towel and brought it to the patient, truly making her smile and taking her mind off of her diagnosis. The towel elephant was adorable, and meant so much to the patient. Because of the joy this patient experienced from Christina's small token of affection, Christina has inspired other nurses to do the same for their patients. Christina was inspired to create this towel animal by a cruise she recently went on, and would talk about how great it made her feel to return to her room and see something so sweet that someone took the time to create. She thought that our patients deserved to feel the same way!
Christina is well respected by her colleagues. She constantly amazes them with her new and innovative thinking, and contributions to the unit. Christina has assisted in developing the nurse admission response team for our unit with the unit council chair. This team assists nurses who have worked diligently to discharge patients prior to noon (one of our organizational goals) with admissions to decrease the workload and ease stress that comes with an admission. This is a huge associate satisfier, and reflects the contributions Christina brings as a nurse and individual to our team on 9 South.
Christina is the whole package for an Advocate nurse. She is a team player in every sense of the meaning; she will go out of her way to help other associates. From answering all call lights to contributing a helping hand to a critical situation during a code/rapid response, she is truly an asset to the 9 South team and nursing at Advocate in general. She holds true to her personal goals and development and strives to reach new levels every single day. Her tactics to change the lives of her patients and other associates begins with an inspirational quote to drive her success, and ends with a smile to end her day.