Brianna Bertucci has been a nurse for almost 2-years, and she is self-directed, compassionate, respectful, approachable, and professional. Daily, Brianna excels as a strong patient advocate. She provides exceptional care for all patients, especially those with behavioral health disorders. Brianna values each patient’s differences and creates a special bond with everyone.

For example, Brianna alters difficult and challenging environments into calm and controlled ones. She excels at providing patients with choices that decrease their agitation and engages them in active participation in their care. Brianna quickly addresses subtle changes in patients’ behavior and intervenes accordingly.

One example of Brianna diverting a patient’s agitated and aggressive behavior occurred when a patient was swinging and spitting at team members while climbing on the furniture. By drawing his attention to watching his favorite movie and playing with toy cars with her, Brianna effectively created a mood of relaxation to calm the patient. Brianna welcomes caring for all patients, no matter what their challenges may be, and supports continuity of care to build trust.

When another team member’s patient became agitated, Brianna used her talents to ease the situation. She not only removed knots in the patient’s hair but also created beautiful braids in their place. The patient was ecstatic with her new look and was relaxed.

Another patient, who was in isolation, ran against a door and into the halls. Brianna calmly assisted him back to his room and channeled his energy in a productive manner. She challenged him to a game of jumping jacks while he remained in his room. These are just a few examples of how Brianna manages complexity and instills trust between herself and her patients.

Not only is Brianna compassionate towards all patients on the unit, but she also establishes a special connection with their family members. For example, Brianna brought smiles to a lot of faces when she made homemade signs to display in all her patients’ rooms for the moms on Mother’s Day. She also effectively and consistently communicates all patient changes and updates to appropriate family members. Team members have sent Brianna numerous recognitions. “Having a great attitude, great time management skills, and being collaborative” are only a few ways her teammates have described her in numerous kudos.

Another nurse mentioned Brianna’s strong teamwork when she recognized Brianna for placing an IV on her patient while she was busy with another procedure. Brianna has gone above and beyond to offer to relieve the telemetry technician for breaks when there was only one charge nurse between two units. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brianna demonstrated her compassion, professionalism, resiliency, willingness to help, and eagerness to learn as she also was one of the few team members on the general pediatric units who volunteered to be deployed to the adult Covid units. She truly exemplifies the characteristics of compassion, resiliency, positivity, collaboration, and professionalism.