Sandy has always been a 5 STAAR employee giving more than 100% each day she works. As a new RN, she transitioned into the role with ease very respected by all of the staff for her hard work ethic, team focus, patient and family-centered care, great personality, and calm demeanor.
Sandy is a true professional in the unit, interacting with great communication style with family by engaging proactively to make sure her patients and families are informed. She collaborates well with physicians and our whole Interdisciplinary team making sure that the patient's plan of team is in place. She uses critical thinking every minute of the day on our busy 38-bed med/surg/telemetry unit.
She is a mover and a shaker, diligent and precise in her work, organized in her presentation and has grace and compassion in every interaction. In providing nursing care, she holds everyone from physicians to all her fellow team members, to the highest standards of care. She takes the charge role on some weekdays and weekends and is a great resource to all staff. She interacts to keep the flow of throughput going with ease and concentrates on meeting our patient's needs and upholding patient satisfaction.
She is often an advocate for patients bringing them things that they need, whether it's clothing or personal items that they do not have to run and participating in food and clothing drives. She always goes above and beyond not just for her patients but for her peers and the unit itself. She has changed her schedule to work nights to meet staffing needs several times at a moment's notice. She has made switches for staff members who have last-minute family needs and changed her own plans to help them, which is just an example of how kind she is.
She creates a positive environment by example showing new nurses the right thing to do - by switching, being a team player, building the team spirit - arranging nights out for the unit staff. Her optimism and enthusiasm is infectious and she definitely demonstrates this as she precepts our new RN's on the floor. She is strict about her practice, follows the rules and expects the same from others.
Cool under pressure, Sandy can best be described as the ideal nurse in an emergency. Focusing on team members, ensuring order and keeping everything calm, she keeps our patients safe. I would like to recognize her for her exceptional quality of care as she has been in numerous critical situations where just because she was the nurse, the patient's outcome was better.
Sandy is a troubleshooter and will not stop until she gets the best solution for her patient's needs. She is active in several committees in the hospital. She is a resource as the Wound Care Champion, often guiding our new nurses and students as well as medical residents about appropriate staging and orders for our patients. She also participates in several unit-based audits including blood, joint commission, and falls.
The following words describe Sandy: 1. Selfless 2. Caring/Compassionate 3. Inspiring 4. Team focused 5. Leader/Mentor 6. Teacher 7. Resource 8. Organized/Efficient 9. Advocate/Patient/Family-Centered 10. Focused on creating a happy work environment for all 11. Excellent communication/collaboration 12. STAAR/RELATE built in her genes 13. Does not expect to be recognized 14. Does it all naturally 15. The nurse you would want to take care of you...I know that as I would pick her to be my nurse!