January 2022
Kathryn A
Smith
,
RN
3L
TidalHealth Peninsula Regional
Salisbury
,
MD
United States
Katie did everything in her power to make this man's life better by any degree.
In an extremely difficult situation regarding a patient's palliative care where the family switched code status, and plans for the patient multiple times- Katie always had the patient's comfort in mind and was an extremely strong advocate for the patient. She had taken care of this patient for many days and they were unable to talk or respond to any appreciable degree. The most verbal the patient got was crying out or whimpering. Katie did everything in her power to make this man's life better by any degree. She was willing to talk and answer very difficult questions with the family without making them feel guilty which is a hard line to walk. She talked with doctors and argued for increased medications to help with the patient's obvious discomfort. And I hope this doesn't seem like she just wanted medicine because it was easy- she did every single thing for this man she could to make him any more comfortable. Repositioning, warm blankets, oral care, lotion, baths anything. This was a very very ugly situation but Katie made sure everyday up till the end there was someone representing the patient's wants.