Yesterday was an awful day. I knew it would be awful going into it, but I wasn't worried that I would be able to manage it because Jeni was the Charge Nurse working with me. I had two medically-complex patients who were both very sick. One patient was near kidney failure. All of the interventions to treat her kidney failure could have potentially worsened other medical issues she had with other systems in her beautiful, but fragile, body. At the same time, my other medically-complex patient spiked a temp of 43 degrees. Jeni kept me from feeling like I was drowning. While I called a Rapid Response on my patient near kidney failure, Jeni gave my other patient all his medications, started cooling measures, and did frequent vital signs. She managed bed placements for the patients who needed to be transferred to our floor and had a pulse on which ones would be discharged soon. She helped a nurse who was discharging a child who has lived in our hospital for YEARS. She listened to my RRT conversation and reinforced the concerns I had with the providers we talked with. They ordered stat labs. They wanted to continue monitoring when I would have preferred an escalation in care.
Jeni was my rock through it all. Her calm demeanor told me we would all be okay. In that moment of chaos she said "Let me draw the blood. You go on break. Your other patient still has a fever, but I'll take care of that too. I've been keeping in touch with the doctors. We'll figure out a plan". Jeni has not worked as a bedside nurse for the >10yrs that I have known her, but it doesn't matter. She doesn't miss a step. She works to maintain competency in all of the things she does. In all the chaos of yesterday, Jeni took time to do what was important but also found time to somehow do everything. She helped me to feel safe in my care by helping me do something as simple as taking a break, but also helped me with something as complex as talking through circulatory overload pathophysiology with physicians. She stopped to validate her central line blood draw process against policy. She shed tears with us as we watched a child that we all had bonded with over years wave goodbye as she finally went HOME.
At the end of the day, Jeni had helped me with two blood draws, three long conversations with doctors, two breaks, two RRT calls, and one central line dressing change all while doing her Charge Nurse tasks and helping the other nurses on our floor. At the end of the day the mood of our floor was upbeat and calm as she helped transfer my very sick patient near kidney failure to the ICU where she would get the monitoring and support that she needed.
To watch Jeni in action is to watch true artistry. She is a mother, a Charge Nurse, a Shift Administrator, and most of all, a wonderful human being. She is everything I would ever aspire to be as a nurse.