"It's a great day in the NICU, this is Becky, how may I help you?" is your cheerful greeting every time Becky Burtoft, BSN, RNC-NIC answers the phone in the NICU at Children's Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs. Becky's effervescent and positive personality sets the tone each day for our unit, her team members and the families of our patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Often, Becky cares for the most critical ICU patients, whether needing whole-body cooling due to lack of oxygen at birth or the smallest premature infants. Each day Becky brings ownership in her role as an expert clinical nurse, guiding the families through an extremely stressful experience. Serving as a primary nurse for the NICU patients provides the patients and their families the consistency and continuity of care in what can be a very long hospital stay. She forms therapeutic relationships, partnering with these families to guide them through the NICU journey and ultimately empowering the parents to communicate their needs, advocate for their baby and be ready for discharge as they transition to home. Her communication style and interpersonal skills have been recognized by families as clear and reassuring in the midst of confusion. Becky demonstrates compassion and sensitivity during times of crisis and is often leaned on by her team members to care for patients who need an extra loving approach to foster the best patient and family experience.
As a preceptor, Becky is recognized as one of the best in the NICU. She has consistently been seen as an effective teacher assisting those new to the NICU to transition into practice. She has provided thousands of hours of preceptor time helping to guide and mentor our RN Residents, sharing her wisdom and knowledge with others to prepare them to be strong, independent NICU clinicians. Multiple RN Residents have recognized Becky as the "Best Preceptor in the World, I am so thankful that I had her when I was new." Through this professional contribution, Becky has shared her gifts and talents to create strong teams in the NICU.
As we prepared for the opening of the new hospital, Becky assisted the team in the Day in the Life sessions to prepare the staff. It took a village to train all our team members on the new monitors, pumps and other technology. Becky's sense of humor was very helpful to ease her peers' potential discomfort while learning new processes and procedures. Evidence shows that peer to peer learning can often be the most effective method to enhance staff buy-in. We are very grateful that Becky assisted the team in these training sessions.
Along with her commitment to the team members and patients within the hospital, Becky is also very involved in the community and volunteerism. She has been an active participant in the Teddy Bear Days as well as other volunteer opportunities. In addition, Becky serves as a community leader supporting youth participation in the arts. Overall, Becky is an excellent representative of the mission and values of Children's Hospital Colorado and we are fortunate to have her on our NICU team in the Southern Colorado region. Becky Burtoft exemplifies what it is to be an Extraordinary Nurse.