First, Colleen is a very skilled nurse in many ways. She has a good baseline knowledge from her years of schooling. Two, she has a Type A personality that pushes her to take charge of situations, where others may sit by the side. Three, she has good communication abilities that allow her personality to shine through. Lastly, she takes the job personally and ensures that all patients are treated in the way she would want a loved one treated. We have been at this hospital for over a month and her care really stands out.
Colleen has made several special connections with me and my family. I can recall three incidents in this moment. First, she came to our rescue when our infant was having an issue with high ammonia levels. Simply put she was reassuring with her calm demeanor and took charge of the situation in a kind way. The doctor in training failed to see some red flags that Colleen immediately observed, due to her level of experience. We attempted to explain to the doctor in training of the issues and it was not seeming to make a difference. Colleen was able to gently notify the attending doctors of the issues and it got the attention it needed and ensured a good outcome. Without her, in this situation, it would have easily escalated in many ways. A second incident was when our infant was having what appeared to be an allergic reaction. Colleen stepped in and once again took control of the situation. Colleen, due to her level of experience, was able to narrow down possible issues and worked quickly to get a needed treatment/response. In both of these situations, Colleen was not our room nurse and just so happened to be in the hall when the incidents occurred. She came to our rescue without any prompting from other personnel and went above and beyond.
The third time, Colleen once again, was not our assigned nurse and overheard that we were having issues with a medical procedure that the doctors wanted to perform on our infant. With her experience guiding her, she observed that it was more of a lack of information on our part and stopped in our room to provide education. Colleen even grabbed a supply from the cabinet to provide an illustrative example and allowed us to handle the medical equipment for familiarization. The fact that she did this without any prompting was great in itself, but combined with the fact that she is a natural teacher and explained the topic very well took it to the next level.
In both incidents, Colleen provided a calm leadership role and assured us that the staff was doing all in their power to ensure the best outcome for our infant.
In addition, Colleen regularly makes small chat in the halls when she sees my wife or me, asking about how things are going and our level of care. She goes out of her way to speak with me or my wife if any issues arise or if we just simply need to barrow her ear to vent frustrations.