Frei, as known to everyone, is an extraordinary person and clinician. She is highly skilled, extremely knowledgeable, compassionate, and is a team player who consistently displays and promotes the highest ethical standards. Frei is always willing and available to help. She will never say no to anyone. She will stop whatever she is doing to help the nurses. I have seen Frei in the unit consistently helping the nurses, whether it is about documentation, audits, policies, and procedures, trying to elope, or dealing with a patient or a family’s complaint. She is always there to help. Her willingness to share her skills, knowledge, time, and support has had a positive impact on our team. Her quick thinking to acknowledge the problem and the individual’s feelings allowed her to apologize and fix the problem quickly. She helped prevent our patient and family complaints from becoming a grievance. 

In the past 2-3 years the number of patients on 5150/sitters/adolescent, combative and aggressive patients admitted in 5C has gone up. The injuries went up and the staff, even before coming to work, were already anxious and worried and thinking “who will get hurt next.”

One of our previous minors on a 5250 hold was the most challenging patient we had, not only because of the diagnosis, but also the destructive, impulsive behavior. The fear and anxiety were high, and the staff didn’t have an idea of how to take care of her. Frei called the grandpa to get information on how he took care of her. Frei found out what her favorite food was, what she liked to do, what upset her, what calmed her down, and what her routine was at home. She even followed up with SW about her activities in school. The team, with the help of Frei, created a routine for the patient and coordinated visits from the child life team and BHU clinicians. She reached out to the South Coast Regional Community specialist who deals with special needs kids for an in-service to educate us all. Frei requested the patient’s grandpa to bring her favorite double Mcdonald's sandwich and hot fudge chocolate on certain days as a reward for her good behavior. Frei purchased a Kindle Fire that we let her use as a diversion and reward for good behavior.

Every day, Frei saw her multiple times and reassured her that we were there to take care of her. Frei always kept what she promised to the patient, like what she did with everyone. Because of her persistence, kindness, and consistent display of positive behavior, the patient learned to trust and listen to her. Whenever she had an outburst, Frei was there, and when the BERT came, most of the time, she had already calmed her down. Through Frei’s daily example of how to deal with her, the rest of the nurses learned how to take care of her. 

Our team learned so much from this experience and continues to use the same process whenever we get similar patients. Our staff’s fear and anxiety turned into a positive attitude, and we gained confidence that we could do it. 

Frei you are an inspiration to us all. Your positive attitude, can-do spirit and resilience in the face of adversity is truly admirable. You consistently go above and beyond, always striving to make 5 Center a better place to work.