A patient was discharged late on a Friday to an ECF. When she arrived, she found out that there wasn't a prescription for severe pain management. Carol received a call from the patient and made calls to the surgeon and internal med doctors, neither of which was at Kettering to provide a written prescription. Carol called the charge nurse at the ECF and spoke with her about the patient's concern and asked if she could call her medical staff doctor to get a pain management prescription for the patient and the ECF nurse said she would try.
Carol was off the next day, but she called the patient to see if the ECF was able to get her the necessary pain medication. The patient said "no" and shared that she had called her surgeon and he was out of town and could not provide a written prescription. Carol called the charge nurse on 5 East to see who was on call for the orthopedist and the on call doctor agreed to write the prescription for the patient. Carol drove from home, picked up the prescription and delivered it to the charge nurse at the ECF so our patient would have adequate pain management after her joint surgery.
This is typical of Carol, she goes the extra mile to help patients, and as our charge nurse, she is a source of support for our team. They respect her knowledge, experience and expertise in caring for orthopedic patients. Physicians respect Carol and look to her for help in the clinical arena - making rounds, helping with EPIC and providing timely updates on patient care needs. She is an exceptional nurse and even better person.