Lacey R Green
April 2022
Lacey R
Green
,
RN III
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Covenant Children's
Lubbock
,
TX
United States
Lacey spent several hours over multiple days on her days off sitting with the family and the audio interpreter making sure they understood all the ins and outs of N’s medical care.
Lacey is an incredible nurse. She has always been one of the most compassionate people I know, and she carries that into her nursing practice every single day. She exemplifies exactly what it means to care for the patients' and families' minds, bodies, and souls. There is one recent situation in particular where Lacey went even more above and beyond than usual.
A sweet family’s 3-year-old daughter, N, had suffered a spontaneous brain bleed leaving her severely neurologically devastated. She required placement of a tracheostomy and g-tube and would, for the foreseeable future, require 24/7 medical care. The medical condition was complicated by the fact that the family did not live in Lubbock and spoke no English, but an uncommon foreign language that was difficult to find interpreters for. Also, the patient’s mom was due to give birth just days after the patient was admitted to the ICU. There were other children in the family as well, so the mother was not able to be present here in the PICU with her husband and daughter. In order for the family to be able to take their daughter home, they required extensive education on how to care for her new medical needs. Trach care, suctioning, g-tube care, feeding her, positioning her as she could no longer reposition herself, bathing her, and most importantly how to care for her in an emergency situation. This education takes hours and is usually taught over several days to English or even Spanish-speaking family members. Due to the difficulties encountered with finding qualified interpreters for their language, education had to be condensed and lots of information given over shorter periods of time.
Lacey volunteered to come in on her days off to sit with the family and educate them on all of N’s care since the bedside nurse would not be able to spend hours in the patient’s room without neglecting her other patients. Lacey spent several hours over multiple days on her days off sitting with the family and the audio interpreter making sure they understood all the ins and outs of N’s medical care. She also scheduled a time to FaceTime with the patient’s mom, because she could not be present at the bedside, to make sure she was educated and well informed.
Even more impressive than that, Lacey spent her own time and money away from the hospital to create a personalized binder for N’s family that included all of her medical information from a summary of her initial injury, to medication doses and schedule, to physicians on her care team as well as all of the information about her trach size, g-tube and feeding schedule, emergency information, and more. This would be incredible for any family member of a chronically ill child to have, but for N’s family, it will make obtaining care for her much easier by preventing delays in medical care due to language barriers. N’s family will be able to hand any medical professional this binder and most questions will be answered. Lacey ordered templates for the information that we will be able to use in the future for other patients and families. This really is an incredible thing to be able to gift to families who have so much to remember and will likely have multiple hospitalizations where providers will need all of that information to be repeated. The binder will ease the way for N, N’s family, and multiple families in the future.
Lacey is truly representative of all The DAISY Award stands for and is incredibly deserving of such an honor. We are thankful to have her compassionate and giving personality as a part of our PICU family.
A sweet family’s 3-year-old daughter, N, had suffered a spontaneous brain bleed leaving her severely neurologically devastated. She required placement of a tracheostomy and g-tube and would, for the foreseeable future, require 24/7 medical care. The medical condition was complicated by the fact that the family did not live in Lubbock and spoke no English, but an uncommon foreign language that was difficult to find interpreters for. Also, the patient’s mom was due to give birth just days after the patient was admitted to the ICU. There were other children in the family as well, so the mother was not able to be present here in the PICU with her husband and daughter. In order for the family to be able to take their daughter home, they required extensive education on how to care for her new medical needs. Trach care, suctioning, g-tube care, feeding her, positioning her as she could no longer reposition herself, bathing her, and most importantly how to care for her in an emergency situation. This education takes hours and is usually taught over several days to English or even Spanish-speaking family members. Due to the difficulties encountered with finding qualified interpreters for their language, education had to be condensed and lots of information given over shorter periods of time.
Lacey volunteered to come in on her days off to sit with the family and educate them on all of N’s care since the bedside nurse would not be able to spend hours in the patient’s room without neglecting her other patients. Lacey spent several hours over multiple days on her days off sitting with the family and the audio interpreter making sure they understood all the ins and outs of N’s medical care. She also scheduled a time to FaceTime with the patient’s mom, because she could not be present at the bedside, to make sure she was educated and well informed.
Even more impressive than that, Lacey spent her own time and money away from the hospital to create a personalized binder for N’s family that included all of her medical information from a summary of her initial injury, to medication doses and schedule, to physicians on her care team as well as all of the information about her trach size, g-tube and feeding schedule, emergency information, and more. This would be incredible for any family member of a chronically ill child to have, but for N’s family, it will make obtaining care for her much easier by preventing delays in medical care due to language barriers. N’s family will be able to hand any medical professional this binder and most questions will be answered. Lacey ordered templates for the information that we will be able to use in the future for other patients and families. This really is an incredible thing to be able to gift to families who have so much to remember and will likely have multiple hospitalizations where providers will need all of that information to be repeated. The binder will ease the way for N, N’s family, and multiple families in the future.
Lacey is truly representative of all The DAISY Award stands for and is incredibly deserving of such an honor. We are thankful to have her compassionate and giving personality as a part of our PICU family.