Kathleen Wooldridgeis by far the most competent and compassionate nurse I have had the pleasure of working side-by-side with in a very long time. The Veterans of the United States of America are lucky to have her on their side. Here are some examples:
Integrity:"The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles." That is the definition by Oxford Dictionaries. I can't count how many times I have asked Kathleen to go to lunch, only to have her say, "I can't. A patient just walked in and I have to take care of him." Or, "I have to call this patient back." The strong moral principles she has arelike a protective instinct when it comes to her patients. The patient comes first and has to be taken care of, no matter what. In a day and age when moral principles seem to be lacking, her rules of personal conduct are inspiring.
Commitment:Commitment to your patients is completing over 2,642 patient encounters in less than a year. Having 473 My Health e-vet messages come to you and sending out 307 messages back to your patients. Commitment to your co-workers is coming to work every day and saying, "I'm here to do a job. Let me know if you need help."Kathleen worked at another VA before moving to Colorado. Commitment is coming back to the organization when the opportunity presented itself, even when the media was not VA friendly. Commitment to your profession is diligently solving issues the patient is having. Examples include bringing hypertensive patients back every month for a nurse visit, resulting in only 12 patients on her panel with a blood pressure of 140/90, and bringing in her diabetic patients every month for diabetic teaching, resulting in only 5 patients on her panel with a HgbA1c over 9. These are outstanding results.
Advocacy:Kathleen is the ultimate patient advocate. She hits the ground running in the morning, skips lunch to problem solve hard cases, and most often is in a multi-tasking mode to take care of as many of her patients as possible. In one instance, a patient assigned to her panel fell and sustained a fractured neck. The VA had initially denied his surgery. Kathleen obtained all the records from the outside facilities to assist neurosurgery in making a determination for the patient, after attempting to get the images from a local hospital without success. Finally, Kathleen went to the local hospital, obtained the images and the patient was fee based for his surgery. That is a patient advocate.
Respect:Many of our veterans feel disrespected. Whether it's because of the way they were treated when they returned home, or because of massive bureaucracy that burdens the VA, never has a veteran felt disrespected while in Kathleen's presence. She actively listens, and responds in a positive manner. Even if the answer is no, the veteran feels respected when he leaves. One such example, was a patient who was screaming in the waiting room. He had even been arrested by the VA police. He was unassigned and was wanting an injection for his knee. Kathleen obtained a next day appointment with her provider and was able to accommodate the veteran. The next day, after receiving some pain relief the veteran was very grateful for the care he had gotten. The fact that Kathleen did not let his ranting and raving detour her from his need for care showed the ultimate respect for the patient.
Excellence:Peer reviews are conducted in the Colorado Springs CBOC. When the results were released, if Kathleen had any deficiencies, which is quite rare, she goes back through the chart to self-identify her discrepancies. Then she applies those to her future charting. Normally, she is in the 98th percentile in her charting. This past nurses' week, Kathleen was instrumental in providing activities for the entire week. After almost 30 years of nursing, this was the most fun and memorable week ever. There was cake decorating contests, a photo booth, "guess who this nurse is," and nurse's trivia, all without a budget. It was awesome.
Our mission is to Honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being. Kathleen Wooldridge is a nurse who does this every day and is very deserving of the DAISY Award.