Kayla is an exceptional nurse, not only in her clinical skills and her ability to quickly and accurately assess a patient or a situation but in her ability to empathize, demonstrate care and compassion, and help her charges when in need. She is incredibly detailed oriented and efficient. She is an excellent and caring nurse, an example of what a CCHMC nurse should be.

Our team and program lends itself to close communication and connection with our families. We meet our families during the fetal stage, a time of great turmoil and sadness as the parents have just been told their child will be born with a life-altering, potentially deadly form of CHD. We get to know our families over the next few months until birth and then we become their care managers. We talk to our families, sometimes daily, and we get to know them quite well. Our families show such trust in Kayla and it is because of her gentle, confident, and compassionate approach.

I want to highlight a specific day. Kayla is a Care Manager for the Interstage team. I am Kayla's partner, so work beside her each day, observing the high quality of care she offers our patients. Part of our job is to manage home surveillance for fragile single-ventricle infants who are cardio-pulmonary shunt dependent. Surveillance includes parents documenting feeds, feed tolerance, oxygen levels, heart rate, weight, and red flags, and submitting videos of their infant for nurse review. Surveillance is designed to detect any subtle or concerning trends. Kayla was reviewing the day’s surveillance and was alone with our emergency phone.

First and most importantly, she noted several families had yet to submit the necessary data. She took the necessary step of reaching out to these families to encourage compliance. Sometimes this step is not always an easy one and encouragement is necessary. On this day she was thoughtful and appropriately tenacious and encouraged the surveillance. Two separate families complied and simultaneously discovered concerning trends in their infant's oxygen levels. Both infants were saturating in the 50s and 60s. Both infants were noted to be dusky on their videos. One mother did identify that there was a concern. The other felt that her child was baseline and that there were no issues, the video being helpful in this situation, as cyanosis was noted by Kayla.

Kayla simultaneously guided each parent and directed both to call 911. She guided the emergency teams as our single ventricle infants are an unusual medical substrate and they require special and targeted care. Both were taken to the emergency room and both were noted to indeed be cyanotic in the 50s and 60s for their oxygen levels. Both were admitted to the CICU and both have undergone surgical procedures that were a direct response to their surveillance findings and identification of concerning trends and state.

Not only did these two infants have a good outcome, but the story could have been different. Had she not first been tenacious enough to encourage compliance and thus discovery, but she safely guided them through an emergency situation and got them emergency care, simultaneously! And all in the caring, compassionate, and professional manner in which she always conducts herself! Blessed to have her as my partner! And our families are lucky to have her as their care manager.