Clinical Skills:
Megan Gaibler is an exceptional nurse and an invaluable member of the D5 team. She can handle complex and demanding patient assignments while providing exemplary patient care. Megan excels at time management, critical thinking, and care coordination. On a particularly busy day on D5, Megan advocated for her patients’ wishes and went above job requirements and expectations, relentlessly pursuing her patients’ goals. In this patient assignment, Megan balanced competing priorities, including critical patient conditions, behavioral issues, and complex care coordination. Megan used her robust critical thinking skills to maintain the safety of her patients and the staff while focusing on helping the patient achieve her goals.
Compassionate Care:
Megan’s ability to build interpersonal relationships with her patients builds a trusting relationship that encourages them to share their healthcare goals openly. On this day, the patient shared with Megan that her greatest desire was to go home to her family as soon as possible. The patient reached clinical stability and continued to be hospitalized due to outpatient and inpatient care coordination issues, including navigating different health systems and insurance issues. This case was complicated by the patient’s atypical treatment of an infected port and chronic Total Parental Nutrition use. Megan vowed to her patient that she would do absolutely everything in her power to work through the barriers to her discharge and goal of going home as soon as possible.
Exemplary Service:
Megan worked tirelessly to contact the primary physician and case manager assigned to the patient. She began the care coordination early in the day to ensure the patient’s goal could be worked on while all the resources required were available. Megan reached out to the interdisciplinary team for solutions. When that did not yield the patient's desired results, she escalated to the charge nurse and the length of stay navigator to help remove the barriers to discharge. She started this process first thing in the morning after the patient had confided her wish to go home, and she worked ceaselessly to make discharge a reality until the end of her shift. During this time, she seamlessly balanced the rest of her heavy patient assignments and kept the lines of communication with the patient regarding the process clear. Megan prioritized transparent and honest communication to remove the barriers and achieve the patient’s discharge goal. The patient was anxious to return home. Megan made the time to go into the patient’s room to update the patient frequently throughout the day to ease her anxiety and reassure the patient that she was giving the patient’s wishes with her full effort.
Continued Commitment:
Unfortunately, this case proved to be too complex with too many moving pieces to solve in a single day. Luckily for the patient, Megan was returning the next day. Megan requested to be assigned to this patient the next day to continue advocating for the patient’s wishes. Having learned through her work the day before, Megan knew the exact steps required to coordinate the care for the patient to discharge successfully. Megan got to work advocating as soon as her shift began. Many interdisciplinary team members did not know all the necessary steps to ensure a prompt discharge, so Megan took the time to educate the other team members. She held the interdisciplinary team accountable for prioritizing her patient’s care plan. After a morning of heavy care coordination while balancing an acute patient assignment, Megan’s hard work paid off, and the patient went home safely! The patient was incredibly grateful for Megan’s dedication to her care, clear communication, and kindness throughout the journey to coordinate discharge. Megan went above and beyond by advocating for her patient’s goal, coordinating complex care management, and expertly communicating. Our patients and our unit are lucky to have Megan!