When I got to 2N I had thoughts of harming myself. The courtesy and respect given to me by Ms. Myers helped me to begin feeling better about myself. She would ask how I was feeling, which allowed me to feel she cared. She displayed professional kindness that gave me hope. She is a reflection of the ICARE statement. Please recognize Ms. Myers' for her commitment towards us Veterans.
***
Recently, during our morning report in 2N, Nurse Morton was just casually giving us report on all our psych patients. It caught my attention when she said that she worked that weekend and she noticed a veteran was having a CT scan on Monday that despite NPO orders written the night prior procedure, she told the nursing staff to hold metformin order because she remembered that the patient is on metformin (for diabetes) should be held prior a CT scan. Providers forgot about this very critical situation -that concomitant use of metformin and contrast dye would increase the risk of a patient having an acute renal failure. She also took notice that the patient is receiving insulin glargine 10 units QHS, which she also instructed the nurse to decrease the dose in half- this is a standard of care for patients receiving routine insulin that doses should be cut in half when undergoing dental, surgical, diagnostic and other interventional procedures. The patient can be critically become hypoglycemic and complicate the procedures if doses were administered at their regular doses.
Later on, I asked Nurse Morton what prompted her to do those interventions that actually saved this particular veteran. She said, "That's what I learned all these years". Well, I have noticed Nurse Morton's compassion as a nurse advocating for her patients, our veterans, for over a year now and the example I mentioned above was just one of the many instances when she took charge of calling providers in order to prevent harm on her patients.
Prior to these heroic incidents, Nurse Morton had been calling me for issues about medications that she thought were not appropriately dosed with the patients. She called me when patients have uncontrolled hypertension and unmanageable blood sugars which actually led to us revisiting our existing Hypoglycemia Protocol. It was her leadership that put nursing, pharmacy, and medical provider to sit down and re-formulate the unit's hypoglycemia protocol -this was the result of several veterans that were transferred to our E.R. due to hypoglycemia. Now, we have reinforced with our providers to put veterans on hypoglycemia protocol using the Dextrose/Glucose gel tubes.
She also has been asking me to re-organize our over 20-year old existing Alcohol Withdrawal Protocol (CIWA) due to a patient's uncontrolled hypertension while getting treatments for alcohol detox. Because of her effort, providers become more aware of the situation and one change was made into the Lorazepam Order set. We still have work to do on this to further improve the protocol.
Last Monday's effort from Nurse Morton was undeniably nursing skill and work ethic that are NOT typical in my opinion. That takes a person who embodies the VA I-CARE values not just on occasion BUT rather on a DAY-TO-DAY basis, and that is Nurse Natasha Morton.