As the day shift lead nurse, I was reminded of Angela’s advanced skills and expertise as a floor nurse (she does lead too). Her 53 year old trauma patient from ICU (multiple rib fx, chest tube, femur fx with extreme swelling/bleeding into the hip area) was a concern for me from lead to lead report. Soon after report I checked with this nurse regarding him. Having noted the swelling that I was concerned about too, she assessed his labs and recognized that he was not anticoagulated yet. She had already called the trauma nurse practitioner to get an ultrasound to rule out DVT, obtained and applied the SCDs and was assessing him for a possible ileus. Any single one of these observations are good nursing assessments, but having them come together within the first hour of a busy dayshift by one nurse elevates her into the upper echelon….If I were a patient I would feel in good hands with her as my nurse.