Sarah Kelley
January 2024
Sarah
Kelley
,
RN
Women's Center
ECU Health Duplin Hospital
Kenansville
,
NC
United States

 

 

 

Though finding the correct charger for the patient's laptop took up a significant amount of time, she did it anyway because she knew the impact this small and simple act of kindness would have on the patient's well-being.
Sarah was caring for a patient with sepsis and leukocytosis who required frequent vital sign assessments and IV antibiotics as well as daily white blood cell counts. The patient requested to sign out against medical advice. Understanding the importance of the nursing interventions listed above, Sarah used the ECU health concept "what matters to you" to investigate further. In doing so, she discovered the patient was in school, and her laptop battery died, leaving her unable to complete her school work while in the hospital. Because Sarah understood how critically ill the patient could become without the IV antibiotics and how important the frequent monitoring was for early detection of septic shock, she called the IT department and requested to borrow a laptop charger. They graciously agreed to let the patient borrow a charger and she agreed to stay in the hospital and continue treatment. Though finding the correct charger for the patient's laptop took up a significant amount of time, she did it anyway because she knew the impact this small and simple act of kindness would have on the patient's well-being. If Sarah had given the patient the AMA papers to sign without determining what mattered to her, the patient's outcome could have been very poor, even to the point of death. This patient's story is just one of the many reasons Sarah is a DAISY Nurse.