Christie Fallon is an RN coordinator in the outpatient epilepsy program. This position consists of coordinating and navigating patient care across the continuum for a challenging, chronic patient population. Primarily performing this work with patients through the telephone and MyChart, Christie has led the team to branch out and include patient communication while in the inpatient setting as well. She has organized a process to round on our patients and families, as well as hand-off with the medical team daily. This process has helped to close the gaps and meet our patients' needs while they are admitted to the hospital.
In each of these patient interactions, whether her caseload of patients or any patient admitted to our hospital Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, Christie role models compassionate care. She is kind and patient in every telephone triage call, often going above and beyond the call to make sure her patient's needs are met. Recently, one of our patients was having difficulty finding transportation to the hospital to obtain a variety of tests needed. Christie sought out multiple resources throughout the hospital, making every attempt to align appointments on the same day and or provide service recovery to assist with parking costs. The patient and family were very grateful for Christie's efforts to help coordinate their care. This is an example of the type of care Christie provides every day. She is always looking out for the best interests of her patients and families and going the extra mile to ensure a seamless, positive patient experience.
Since Christie is the central point of contact for the epilepsy care team, in frequent communication with her patients and families, making special connections must be an innate quality possessed by RN Coordinators. She recently advocated daily for a high-risk patient - a young girl with epilepsy who was pregnant. Christie worked very closely with her physician team to decrease the anxiety of her family and ensure her care was coordinated seamlessly. Christie communicated through MyChart with this family daily, updating her medical team, providing a great deal of emotional support and ensuring the entire family felt well cared for. The patient recently had a healthy, seizure free delivery. If not for Christie's efforts to communicate clearly and provide compassionate care, the outcome could have faltered. In reading the MyChart messages, one can clearly see how Christie impacted this patient and family. They were confident in Christie's care, even inviting her to the post-partum unit to visit the newborn. Although the care of our patients often crosses specialties given the chronic impact of epilepsy, crossing into the maternal special care realm does not occur all too frequently. Christie rose to the occasion, stepped outside of her comfort zone and made a true impact on the care of this patient and her family.
Christie Fallon strives to make a significant difference in the lives of patients and their families every day, in each interaction that she has - whether through telephonic, electronic or in person patient care. The unique aspects of Christie's nursing role allow her to use a different skill set than bedside nursing. Christie's background is bedside, neuroscience nursing, so the qualities that allow her to provide compassionate care in the outpatient setting are a result of her specialty in neuroscience nursing expertise. Christie portrays a true desire and love for neuroscience nursing, which is shown in her patient care. She has a clear desire and love for educating her patients. She is often heard using the teach-back method, re-iterating complicated medication tapers and instructions over the phone, and then mailing written instructions to her patient to ensure full understanding and compliance. This is so important in our epilepsy population - understanding and compliance. Christie recognizes the importance of this and spends as much time as she needs to with her patients. As a result of this, Christie's caseload of patients is clearly well managed and demonstrates an understanding of their treatment plans.
Christie Fallon is a Certified Neuroscience Registered Nurse. She is the only CNRN on the outpatient epilepsy nursing team. She consistently attends conferences and educational opportunities to maintain her skills and bring her specialty knowledge back to the team. Christie is also a leader of demonstrating compassionate nursing care through continuous improvement and innovation. Christie is constantly at the forefront of bringing great ideas to the team and leading the team to follow through in the best interest of our patients. She is organized, communicates clearly, and always puts the patients at the center of every action. Christie has developed special relationships with her patients and families in the outpatient setting while ensuring her caseload of hundreds of patients receive the same, consistent, supportive and compassionate care.