Tara Barragan, RN has been in the Emergency Department since 2015.  She obtained and completed the clinical ladder for CN III in 2019.  She serves as the Emergency Department UBPC Chair and has been involved in leading various process improvement initiatives/projects including behavioral health activities, falls prevention, WOW reorganization/standardization, and the “Rock Star” board (peer to peer recognition). She has been a primary and secondary preceptor for new hire nurses since joining the department. Tara is also active in community service activities; she co-leads the coordination for medical volunteers and supplies with Dr. Katren Tyler for the California International Marathon annually.

Today, Tara went above and beyond. She really helped out a patient and his wife in C pod. The patient is 90 years old and was getting admitted but does all the bills for the couple. The patient's wife was totally overwhelmed and didn't know how to access their accounts to pay their cell phone bill. She was worried that she would be stranded at home with no phone service while her husband was in the hospital. Tara sat down with them (both are slightly demented) and weren't always able to provide clear answers, and through kindness and patience was able to help them access their accounts and pay their cell phone bill, ensuring the patient's wife would have continued critical cell phone service. This is not the first time I've seen Tara quietly do things like this. This is why I'm proud to call her an ED colleague and one of my role models.