Julie Lanham
June 2016
Julie
Lanham
,
RN, BSN
Burn, Orthopedic, Trauma Unit
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Columbus
,
OH
United States

 

 

 

Julie was floated off of her home unit where she learned of a patient that had recently been diagnosed with Staph-Scalded Skin Syndrome. Although Julie was not the nurse assigned for the patient, she advocated for the patient. Julie is familiar with this condition as she has seen and cared for these patients on her home unit, the burn unit. After learning that the 4-year-old girl was having her dressings changed three times a day she discussed with the team an alternate approach to the care plan. This alternative plan included once a day dressing changes with an alternate dressing, including child life at dressing changes, and using the burn trolley to assist in removal of more difficult dressings. Julie advocated for additional nutritional support to cover the patient's increased needs. Her helpfulness eventually lead to the patient being transferred to H5B. When Julie's float shift ended she returned to the burn unit with the patient. Then, Julie very patiently spent the next 2.5 hours in a dressing change with the little girl. She went above and beyond to make sure this family and child received the best possible care for a very painful and scary condition. This incident is just a glimpse of who she is as a nurse. Julie is a very caring nurse all of the time.