Karen's clinical skills and especially her compassionate care exemplify the kind of nurse that our patients, their families, and our staff recognize as an outstanding nurse.
Karen was asked to do an EKG on a patient with c/o heartburn/chest pain. She immediately called the patient who came within 45 minutes, and she immediately stopped what she was doing, took an excellent history of his pain, did an EKG and showed it to attending physician who decided to ask for an ambulance to local ER.
Even while all this chaos was happening in the clinic, Karen noticed his lab value for TSH was elevated and asked me if we should start thyroid replacement. She was cool, calm and effective during a true emergency.
The patient was admitted for NSTEMI. Subsequently, the patient required three coronary stent placements. After work, Karen went the extra mile to check on the patient at the local hospital!
Karen received two thank you cards from the patient and his brother indicating that she had saved his life.