As is obvious from the number of nominations submitted for her to be recognized as a DAISY Award honoree, Paulette Gagnon is a wonderful young nurse who is clearly making a difference in the lives of those patients whom she touches. As I round monthly with patients in the Dialysis Unit, some are very reluctant to name one or a few particular individuals who should be recognized for doing a great job, most often stating of our entire team “They’re all Great!” However, when patients do actually provide me with names, Paulette’s is nearly always among those reported to me by multiple patients who describe her as being very caring, attentive to their individual needs and concerns, a great teacher, and one with whom they feel very comfortable having her managing their care for them.

Paulette is very industrious and can always be found engaged with patients and completing the many and varied responsibilities associated with the role of a dialysis nurse. She never hesitates to volunteer for special projects, including such things as designing educational bulletin boards for patients & families and/or researching various dialysis-related topics and providing trainings for our team. She is an avid learner and is currently pursuing her BSN degree from home (I believe she’s close to obtaining this) while also working full-time with us in the MG Dialysis unit, per diem at another facility (mainly with an eye for learning more about how our service compares with others and seeking additional information and opportunities to improve our internal processes), raising a young daughter and working with her beloved horses! She readily volunteers for more than the usual amount of on-call coverage and is always willing and eager to travel to the CCU in Augusta when dialysis services are needed there. She is extremely interested in any and all techniques that can be employed to maintain and extend the life of patients’ vascular accesses. She has come in many times on her days off to work with patients who want to establish their own button-holes in an effort to lend support and improve success rates.

As peer reviewers recently commented, Paulette has a very positive attitude and her laughter is contagious. She has a good chair-side manner and can easily find a common ground with most patients. She seems to live and breathe Nephrology when she is here. She is truly engaged in her career with her patients. She collaborates with other members of the multi-disciplinary team to achieve optimal patient outcomes.

Paulette is definitely a strong patient advocate who actively lives out the patient and family centered care model. We are so very proud of her being recognized with the DAISY Award and count her as a blessing to our team!