September 2021
James "Winn"
Van Cleave
,
RN
Surgical Intensive Care Unit
UofL Health - UofL Hospital
Louisville
,
KY
United States
Winn made it look effortless. He also did all of this and comforted and spoke with the families repeatedly while performing all of this care.
I am a medical student, and I was rotating with the trauma ICU team during the month of July. I met and worked with Winn on many occasions. He was always a joy to work with. There are many reasons to nominate him for this award, but one night really stood out to me. That night, he was assigned two of the sickest patients in the SICU. One had been run over by an 18 wheeler and one had been in a head-on collision and had multiple medical co-morbidities. Without complaining, he stepped up to the plate to take care of these two incredibly ill patients. He was in and out of their rooms all night and worked so hard. He did a phenomenal job of coordinating and updating the multiple teams taking care of the patients. He easily communicated the status of the patients, and he ensured their care ran smoothly. Even more importantly, he helped communicate with the families. He is a great example of being able to communicate at the level of the families. He helped to explain how critically ill they were, and I think helped them grieve the situation. He was able to do all of this and manage that both patients were being ventilated, one was on continuous dialysis and one was preparing for emergent surgery. There were so many orders and care coordination for both that I am not sure I would have been as collected and on point as he was in the situation. He made it look effortless. He also did all of this and comforted and spoke with the families repeatedly while performing all of this care. He truly meets the criteria for this award in so many ways. I really appreciated and I know the families did as well, the care that he was giving and the compassion he had for the patients and work. He truly exemplifies what we all hope to be as caregivers.