Nominated by Jasmine Canda |
Ms. Nekila and I were scheduled to work last Sunday night and Cody (thankfully) signed up for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT). Ms. Nekila was charge RN and we already had pending CRRTs, PDs and an acute lined up. I was doing an emergency dialysis for an active bleeding patient with increasing K+ when our nephro MD added another acutely ill patient from the ED who is also hyperkalemic and fluid overloaded.
Ms. Nekila started that patient and without hesitation and took all her “charge nurse work” at bedside, (she could have waited for me to finish with acute #1) but she was a great patient advocate and a unit advocate as well as we couldn’t have finished both patients on our shift given all the things needed to be done.
She is a great team player and exemplifies an admirable leader. She is like our “mother” at night. She is a well experienced dialysis nurse and always looks after us. Her dialysis expertise and loyalty to Duke should be greatly appreciated.
As I finished the second acute patient, pediatric ICU called in and said the “baby” needs to be restarted as he is very hemodynamically unstable off CRRT. It was very hard to get the TPA out of the baby’s HD line (at this point the baby could have suffered hours without TPA or change of access) but with her expertise and never say die attitude, she stepped in and managed to get it out and run the CRRT. I learned a lot working with her and our unit and the hospital should celebrate and acknowledge nurses like her. Skill, expertise, and a good heart at work doesn’t always end up in one person, but Ms. Nekila has that.
