Brittany is the RN supervisor on the Adult Dialysis unit and embodies the characteristics of an amazing leader! She is very reliable, responsible, and a perfect example of a patient advocate. Brittany is always learning and encourages others to take use the skills to take on other roles, such as relief charge and unit-based educator positions. She goes above and beyond to support everyone on the extra shifts and on-call shifts when the unit is in need, which demonstrates how selfless she is with her time. When people on the unit are out sick or have personal matters, whether they are permanent staff or a traveler, Brittany takes the time to check on them and shows genuine concern for everyone. She is also a great listener and takes the time to listen to people vent or express concerns and she works to make things better. She is fair with making RN assignments on the unit daily and does an excellent job managing the day, which may include lots of juggling to prioritize patients and many people calls to nurses and providers throughout the hospital. She is always professional and collaborates well with anyone she works with. She is very knowledgeable and provides professional options that are respectful and never demeaning to others.

Most recently, the hospital ran out of dialysate fluids that are used in the ICU to provide CRRT to patients who have kidney failure at various stages and are unable to endure hemodialysis due to being critically ill. When COVID started, it was discovered that there could potentially be an issue with dialysate production for CRRT, therefore we started working on a project based on development from a different hospital using our hemodialysis machines to produce fluids for use on the ARRT machines. With that being said I don’t think we ever thought the emergency back– up plan would be used. In December 2021, right before Christmas, the hospital could not get ARRT fluid and the dialysis unit had to start making the fluid in order for the ICU to be able to provide this much need therapy to patients. Brittany didn’t think twice and was right there to help with making dialysate fluid! Although there was an emergency plan in place, it had many kinks in it since nobody knew what it would look like to produce enough fluid to treat nine to ten CRRT patients daily. Brittany collaborated with the RN supervisors in the ICU, the Nephrology physicians, and many others to facilitate streamlining the fluid-making process. She organized the workflow and created an efficient assembly line to get fluid make as quickly as possible with little commotion especially since it was being done in the pediatric dialysis unit, which is a shared space for other peds patients. She also came in on her day off to help with fluid making during the holidays to make sure there was enough dialysate for every ICU. Brittany would personally talk to every ICU nurse who was running CRRT to make sure they had what they needed and even get feedback about how everything was going. Although Brittany is not a CRRT expert, she researched and learned quickly to help make sure critically ill patients on CRRT received their treatments to help keep them alive.

Brittany is a hard-working nurse who goes above and beyond for patients and co-workers on a daily basis! She is such an important and appreciated member of the dialysis team.