Sara Smart is not only a person who tells great stories, but she is a kind, loving person who lights up a room when she walks into it. She has often expressed how she loves taking care of patients. She enjoys conversations with them, she loves comforting them and she has even watched a ball game with a patient after her shift was over.
Sara was called to 4a to replace a peripheral IV on a patient who had been here at Lutheran for several weeks. Upon arrival into the room, she saw a weak and defeated patient who had stool leaking through his gown and on the bed from a leaking ostomy bag. The bag was not fitting over the ostomy correctly. Sara put replacing the IV on the back burner and got to work on taking care of the patient. Knowing Sara, she put on a smile and used her great sense of humor to reassure the patient that she would be taking care of the situation. Sara was bothered that a patient had to lay in his bed with a leaking ostomy. She gathered supplies and called another med-surg floor to find more supplies that she needed to remedy the situation. The nurse from 4c arrived and stayed to help assist Sara with turning and cleaning the patient. Sara told me that she talked and joked with the patient to help make him feel more comfortable. When Sara finished with patient care, she replaced his IV and returned to her task list. Sara put all of her other duties aside to care for this patient. She didn't have to do that because she could have just replaced the IV and informed the primary nurse of the patient's need and left the room. Sara showed empathy and compassion for the patient because of who she is and because of her own personal experiences.
We are so grateful to have Sara on our team. She makes us laugh every day and comes in with a great attitude plus she really is an awesome storyteller!