I have worked with Kathi Henton for the last 8 years and truly admire her dedication to her job as well as to the veterans. I consider myself very lucky to be paired with such an outstanding nurse. Every day she goes above and beyond to help our veterans. I have never heard her say the phrase, "that is not in my job description," which is so often the reply when I ask for assistance with different patient care matters. If our patient needs a blood pressure monitor, she will get him the monitor, program the monitor and demonstrate the proper use of the monitor. If the patient is diabetic, she will make sure he has a glucometer and the supplies. If the patient has not received a flu shot, she will be the first to offer him his annual flu shot. If the patient was hospitalized, she has the records in a timely fashion for me to review prior to the post hospital visit. She is frequently administering the hepatitis B vaccine series as well as placing PPDs in patients who are in the process of undergoing kidney transplant evaluation or who will be starting dialysis. She is quick to return phone calls so that urgent issues can be addressed in a timely fashion. She is excellent at triage with a wonderful fountain of medical knowledge. She calls all the patients to remind them of their appointment times even though this is not a job requirement. This has improved our no-show rate significantly. In fact, when she was out of the office due to a family emergency, one third of our patients did not come to their Nephrology appointment because no phone call reminders were made. I cannot tell you how many patients tell me that they forgot about the appointment until they got her reminder phone call. She scrubs our schedule to make sure that renal labs are completed prior to appointments. She reviews our consults and schedules the consults. If there is a concern that the consult is not appropriate or that the consult needs to be expedited, she will bring it to my attention. She is always willing to stay late if necessary due to an acutely ill patient. She provides patients with education regarding nutrition in chronic kidney disease. She is always interested in improving her medical knowledge and participates in many continuing medical education activities. We work together as a team and because of this teamwork, our days run very smoothly. It is truly a pleasure to come to work when you know that each party is dedicated to her work with the end goal being excellent patient care.
To conclude Kathi Henton goes above and beyond for every single patient that we see in our renal clinic. She truly embodies our motto at the VA, "to care for him who shall have borne the battle."