May 2026
Capri N
Anderson
,
RN
Primary Children's Hospital Lehi Miller Campus
Riverton
,
UT
United States
Capri's effective rounding and quick response to the patient's rapidly declining status saved this infant's life, without question.
Capri Anderson was floated to med-surg one particularly busy night to help us out. One of her patients was a relatively straightforward failure-to-thrive infant whom we were helping work on feeds and gain weight. Capri worked with parents a lot through the night, helping them fortify mom's milk, encouraging and supporting them during difficult feeds, and monitoring the patient closely.
At 6 AM, Capri went in for one last round before shift change to check on the patient and his parents. During night shifts, rounding can sometimes be a quick peek in the door or a visual from the windows. Capri made sure to go in and actually visualize her patient; she immediately noticed his coloring was off, and he was breathing irregularly. She turned on the lights, sat him up and put him on a sat prob, his oxygen was reading at 50% and steadily declining. She immediately called a code blue and started stimulating the infant to try to get him to breathe on his own. When the code team arrived, Capri gave a quick and concise SBAR to the intensivist that allowed the rest of us to focus on the patient.
We were able to get the patient stable enough for transport and get them into the PICU within 30 minutes of the code being called. During the entire code, she remained calm and was following up on people's questions regarding her patient. During the night, especially near the end of our shifts, it is easy to quickly go through rounds, not wanting to wake the patient or their family by entering the room and doing a visual assessment of the patient. Capri reminded us all that while hourly rounding may seem simple and at times redundant, it is a vital part of our jobs. If she had not taken the time to complete her rounds effectively, we would have had a very different and potentially heartbreaking outcome for this patient. I have no doubt that she absolutely saved this child's life.
Capri's effective rounding and quick response to the patient's rapidly declining status saved this infant's life, without question. The patient had no indications or previous history that would indicate this chain of events. Despite this, Capri made sure to effectively assess her more "straight forward/med surg level" patients with the same thoroughness as one would a high acuity or ICU patient.
At 6 AM, Capri went in for one last round before shift change to check on the patient and his parents. During night shifts, rounding can sometimes be a quick peek in the door or a visual from the windows. Capri made sure to go in and actually visualize her patient; she immediately noticed his coloring was off, and he was breathing irregularly. She turned on the lights, sat him up and put him on a sat prob, his oxygen was reading at 50% and steadily declining. She immediately called a code blue and started stimulating the infant to try to get him to breathe on his own. When the code team arrived, Capri gave a quick and concise SBAR to the intensivist that allowed the rest of us to focus on the patient.
We were able to get the patient stable enough for transport and get them into the PICU within 30 minutes of the code being called. During the entire code, she remained calm and was following up on people's questions regarding her patient. During the night, especially near the end of our shifts, it is easy to quickly go through rounds, not wanting to wake the patient or their family by entering the room and doing a visual assessment of the patient. Capri reminded us all that while hourly rounding may seem simple and at times redundant, it is a vital part of our jobs. If she had not taken the time to complete her rounds effectively, we would have had a very different and potentially heartbreaking outcome for this patient. I have no doubt that she absolutely saved this child's life.
Capri's effective rounding and quick response to the patient's rapidly declining status saved this infant's life, without question. The patient had no indications or previous history that would indicate this chain of events. Despite this, Capri made sure to effectively assess her more "straight forward/med surg level" patients with the same thoroughness as one would a high acuity or ICU patient.