John Kulka is the clinical coordinator for the Urology service in the Operating Room at Saddleback Medical Center.  He has extensive knowledge of the OR from his 25+ years, including circulating and scrubbing, and with OR flow and efficiency as a Charge Nurse.  He recognized that there were ten cases booked for one surgeon recently.  Days before, he began planning on how to make the day as efficient as possible for the surgeon, patients, and staff.  He rearranged the order of the cases to allow the surgeon to "bounce" rooms and use equipment and resources best, decreasing delays.  He worked with the Pre-op unit, Central Scheduling, the surgeon's office, and the lithotripsy company to make sure the day was planned as efficiently as possible. On the day of the surgeries, he bounced between rooms, helping to set up cases, clean rooms, transport patients, communicate with the OR charge nurse and Pre-op unit, and give breaks to both nurses and surgical techs.  His pre-planning and day of assistance allowed for ten surgeries to be completed before 5 pm.  No patient ever waited more than 15 minutes beyond their scheduled time to go into the OR.  Without his diligence, the day could have quickly fallen apart.  John's hard work and dedication to the OR provided safe, efficient, and prompt patient care leading to patient, staff, and physician satisfaction. Thank you, John, for all you did that day and every day.

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John demonstrates Saddleback Medical Center’s nursing Professional Practice Model in many ways.  He is the first to change his work schedule to balance staff needs with the OR unit census.  He is amazing at 'playing Tetris' with the surgeries and rooms to help keep the schedule on time; he communicates well with the surgeons, anesthesiologists, the OR team, pre-op, and scheduling for best patient care.  He is incredibly knowledgeable in all the surgical services and equipment and is able and willing to jump in and circulate or scrub a case when needed.  He comes in on weekends when staff needs extra assistance. He has done this with me on more than one occasion, once staying until after 3 am when we had an organ procurement case and other times on weekends when the cases were expected to be difficult, and we would only have a skeleton crew. He recognizes when others go above and beyond and acknowledges their efforts.  One can often find John rearranging the supplies and equipment to help the department function better and have easier access to the most-used items. To find a single story to support this nomination is difficult, as John is a consistent advocate for our patients.