Gail Summers
November 2019
Gail
Summers
,
RN, CWOCN, CFCN
Wound and Ostomy
PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend
Her call to me was unsolicited and was generated solely from her commitment to her patients. Gail had no obligation to come up and provide the education that she did.
It was the end of a 12-hour day when I noticed discharge orders were suddenly placed for a patient. She had been in the hospital for 30 days, mostly on 7 North with a couple of stays in ICU. The interdisciplinary team had been working on a discharge with Cascade Home Health, but nothing was officially set up. This patient was to be discharged with a personal wound vac. The wound vac was at the bedside, but no teaching had occurred. My fear was that this patient, 21 years old, would arrive home without adequate education and support having been arranged.
That is when I received a phone call from the wound care nurse. Gail is a wound and ostomy nurse at RiverBend Medical Center. She told me that she was about to shut down her computer when she decided to take one last look at the list of patients that she was scheduled to see the following day. That is when she noticed the discharge orders for this patient, and she wanted to give me a call to ask if there was anything the patient or I needed. I was so relieved she called. I was uncomfortable discharging the patient with the little education I could provide her, and in addition, there was no on-call help set up with home health.
When I expressed my misgiving to her, she said she would be right up. Gail arrived on the floor within minutes. I entered the room to find her giving a demonstration to the patient on how to fix the wound vac dressing should a leak occur. I sat and listened as she continued to thoroughly review all the important details the patient needed to know. Her shift was over for the day. Her call to me was unsolicited and was generated solely from her commitment to her patients.
Gail had no obligation to come up and provide the education that she did. Because of her, the patient was discharged later that evening with the knowledge she and her family needed to safely care for the wound until home health could be arranged. I have worked alongside her many times over the years and I am routinely impressed by her passion for the nursing profession and her commitment to the patients at RiverBend.
That is when I received a phone call from the wound care nurse. Gail is a wound and ostomy nurse at RiverBend Medical Center. She told me that she was about to shut down her computer when she decided to take one last look at the list of patients that she was scheduled to see the following day. That is when she noticed the discharge orders for this patient, and she wanted to give me a call to ask if there was anything the patient or I needed. I was so relieved she called. I was uncomfortable discharging the patient with the little education I could provide her, and in addition, there was no on-call help set up with home health.
When I expressed my misgiving to her, she said she would be right up. Gail arrived on the floor within minutes. I entered the room to find her giving a demonstration to the patient on how to fix the wound vac dressing should a leak occur. I sat and listened as she continued to thoroughly review all the important details the patient needed to know. Her shift was over for the day. Her call to me was unsolicited and was generated solely from her commitment to her patients.
Gail had no obligation to come up and provide the education that she did. Because of her, the patient was discharged later that evening with the knowledge she and her family needed to safely care for the wound until home health could be arranged. I have worked alongside her many times over the years and I am routinely impressed by her passion for the nursing profession and her commitment to the patients at RiverBend.