Barbara Hightower
May 2015
Barbara
Hightower
,
BSN, CCRN
ICU
Redmond Regional Medical Center
Rome
,
GA
United States

 

 

 

There was a patient who had been discharged from the hospital the day before who was not an ICU patient where Barb works, but from one of the other floors. This patient was confused and concerned about two of his discharge medications and called the hospital in an effort to speak to "someone". He somehow was put through to the ICU unit. Barb was doing charge that day and picked up the call. The man began immediately to explain that when he had gone to the pharmacy to fill his prescriptions the pharmacist advised him to not take two of the discharge medications that had been prescribed. Instead of interrupting him as soon as she realized that she had no knowledge of his situation and passing him on to the floor he was on, she listened. She pulled up his discharge medication list and asked him to get the list that the hospital had sent home with him so that they could go over the list together. She also took a minute to look up his discharge summary in an effort to understand the whole situation. She then went over each medication with him and offered education on the rationale for the medication as they related to his diagnosis. She offered him the advice that he should trust that the physician had prescribed the correct medication, and that it would not harm him to take the two medications together. She also assured him that she would follow up with the physician, which she did immediately. The physician thanked her and he was going to contact the patient at home. Later that day before Barb ended her shift she took more of her time to call the patient back to check on him and to make sure all his questions had been answered. All of this took no small amount of time or effort but that is what Barbara does and who she is. She exemplifies our care values, the care of patients and Redmond.