Michael Lange
October 2023
Michael
Lange
,
BSN, RN
AIMH
LTC Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
,
MI
United States
The more agitated or disorganized a patient gets, the calmer Michael becomes. He is unflappable. The more hectic and conflict-ridden the unit feels, the calmer and less affected Michael becomes.
The spirit of the DAISY award is recognition for extraordinary compassionate care and for nursing as a work in community resiliency. I want to tell you about Michael as one piece of our AIMH team who goes above and beyond his specific job duties to improve all our Veterans' experiences on our unit.
He is naturally a compassionate caregiver. When Michael is charge, I’m always very happy that my patient wants to speak to the charge nurse because Michael is great at de-escalating upset people. The first time I saw this was when he walked up to a patient and calmly asked, “How can I help?” Something about the forthrightness of his approach and his absolute sincerity was communicated to my patient: “I sincerely want to help you” and “Please help me problem-solve this issue.” The more agitated or disorganized a patient gets, the calmer Michael becomes. He is unflappable. The more hectic and conflict-ridden the unit feels, the calmer and less affected Michael becomes.
This personality and his prior experience as a nurse in a Neuro ICU make him invaluable when we have codes on AIMH. Michael is the type of colleague who will walk towards the patients who are psychologically decompensating and ask their nurses what he can do to help. He ignites extraordinary compassionate care by clearing hazards and problems out of the way of fellow nurses. You can see this almost any shift. He is the first person to help if your Howard cart is malfunctioning. He is the person who takes down and resets clocks for daylight savings times, and he will walk out to the car of a colleague who hit a deer on the way to work and help assess the car and fill out paperwork. He will buy bagels for the unit on weekends. He will answer questions about any RN and help us get up to speed. He will make sure that the supplies we need to take care of our Veterans make it to the unit. He coordinated and programmed a unit-based laptop, which we nurses can now plug into the dining room TV equipment in order to run mental health/recovery groups. The ability for us to use online breathing exercises, documentaries, and TED talks in our work, engaging Veterans in developing coping skills and working on their recoveries, is a huge step forward in our unit programming.
Groups are very important to us as mental health nurses as they build Veteran’s recovery and coping skills and provide an environment where we can educate them about medications, talk about breaking out of anxiety spirals, encourage Veterans to be a part of the recovery community and fight the stigma of mental illness. After setting up the computer for us, Michael started a shared Excel spreadsheet where we could all list and link to our favorite online materials for use in groups.
In his behind-the-scenes work, he builds team spirit and improves our ability to find satisfaction in our jobs. When our unit manager and the clinical risk manager introduced us to VHA-ONSNUR-22-01, the VA-approved standard operating procedures for nursing admissions, assessments, and charting, we were a little overwhelmed (it’s a 41-page document, single-spaced, with multiple appendices). Michael read the entire document, cover to cover, and gave our manager a list of ways that we could improve our assessment and documentation practices to bring us into alignment with the SOP. He is an inspiring colleague who helps us all be better nurses. This goes far beyond his specific job duties to work as a member of the team and help provide excellent care to our Veterans and speaks to how Michael promotes wellbeing for both colleagues and our Veterans.
I’ll just mention one last way that Michael builds team spirit. He is an exceptional preceptor. He is the kind of preceptor who you can tell actually *likes* teaching. He is patient, thorough, and willing to give constructive feedback to new colleagues in a way that feels supportive. No matter what the experience level and personality compatibility of a preceptee, no matter if they are pull staff here for 4 hours or a resident here for 6 months, he goes out of his way to be available to answer questions. As a preceptor, he helps the new nurses on our unit develop their practice on the unit, and with this incredibly special population we get to serve.
Mental health nursing is emotionally intense in very specific ways. Having a colleague like Michael around makes all of us better nurses and helps us give extraordinary care.
He is naturally a compassionate caregiver. When Michael is charge, I’m always very happy that my patient wants to speak to the charge nurse because Michael is great at de-escalating upset people. The first time I saw this was when he walked up to a patient and calmly asked, “How can I help?” Something about the forthrightness of his approach and his absolute sincerity was communicated to my patient: “I sincerely want to help you” and “Please help me problem-solve this issue.” The more agitated or disorganized a patient gets, the calmer Michael becomes. He is unflappable. The more hectic and conflict-ridden the unit feels, the calmer and less affected Michael becomes.
This personality and his prior experience as a nurse in a Neuro ICU make him invaluable when we have codes on AIMH. Michael is the type of colleague who will walk towards the patients who are psychologically decompensating and ask their nurses what he can do to help. He ignites extraordinary compassionate care by clearing hazards and problems out of the way of fellow nurses. You can see this almost any shift. He is the first person to help if your Howard cart is malfunctioning. He is the person who takes down and resets clocks for daylight savings times, and he will walk out to the car of a colleague who hit a deer on the way to work and help assess the car and fill out paperwork. He will buy bagels for the unit on weekends. He will answer questions about any RN and help us get up to speed. He will make sure that the supplies we need to take care of our Veterans make it to the unit. He coordinated and programmed a unit-based laptop, which we nurses can now plug into the dining room TV equipment in order to run mental health/recovery groups. The ability for us to use online breathing exercises, documentaries, and TED talks in our work, engaging Veterans in developing coping skills and working on their recoveries, is a huge step forward in our unit programming.
Groups are very important to us as mental health nurses as they build Veteran’s recovery and coping skills and provide an environment where we can educate them about medications, talk about breaking out of anxiety spirals, encourage Veterans to be a part of the recovery community and fight the stigma of mental illness. After setting up the computer for us, Michael started a shared Excel spreadsheet where we could all list and link to our favorite online materials for use in groups.
In his behind-the-scenes work, he builds team spirit and improves our ability to find satisfaction in our jobs. When our unit manager and the clinical risk manager introduced us to VHA-ONSNUR-22-01, the VA-approved standard operating procedures for nursing admissions, assessments, and charting, we were a little overwhelmed (it’s a 41-page document, single-spaced, with multiple appendices). Michael read the entire document, cover to cover, and gave our manager a list of ways that we could improve our assessment and documentation practices to bring us into alignment with the SOP. He is an inspiring colleague who helps us all be better nurses. This goes far beyond his specific job duties to work as a member of the team and help provide excellent care to our Veterans and speaks to how Michael promotes wellbeing for both colleagues and our Veterans.
I’ll just mention one last way that Michael builds team spirit. He is an exceptional preceptor. He is the kind of preceptor who you can tell actually *likes* teaching. He is patient, thorough, and willing to give constructive feedback to new colleagues in a way that feels supportive. No matter what the experience level and personality compatibility of a preceptee, no matter if they are pull staff here for 4 hours or a resident here for 6 months, he goes out of his way to be available to answer questions. As a preceptor, he helps the new nurses on our unit develop their practice on the unit, and with this incredibly special population we get to serve.
Mental health nursing is emotionally intense in very specific ways. Having a colleague like Michael around makes all of us better nurses and helps us give extraordinary care.