Nancy Kochilaris
July 2014
Nancy
Kochilaris
,
BSN, RN
7 West Hospital
Lahey Hospital & Medical Center
Burlington
,
MA
United States

 

 

 

... Nancy is a great nurse, co-worker, mentor and friend. On 7 West we specialize in hematology and oncology, she is always available to assist in the administration of chemotherapy medications even when we call her at home. My co-workers and I go to her regularly for help. Her knowledge has made a true difference in situations that could have led to serious injury. I had a patient who had a terrible reaction to her treatment. Nancy's expertise in the treatment and reaction time during the crisis helped me to stabilize this patient's airway and blood pressure. The education did not start at the crisis it started the moment I told her what medications I would be giving. She reminded me that this treatment could be highly anaphylactic to make sure I had the hypersensitivity kit at the bedside and ready to go. Once the reaction occurred she was right at the bedside with me. My patient dropped her blood pressure into the 60's, she was so swollen, had hives started to report, airway compromise and wheezing. Nancy's familiarity with hypersensitivity orders knowledge of what to do and her relaxed nature kept my patient from going into full respiratory distress. Her calmness kept all of us grounded.

Nancy recently had a patient who had a severe reaction to his treatment, shortness of breath, chest pain, and possible blood clot and drop in blood pressure - a complete medical emergency. Nancy was just amazing with a team effort they turned this patient around. The consensus on the floor was "that patient was lucky Nancy was his nurse". This patient today is doing well and has finished his treatments.

Nancy has a great understanding of our patient population; we often go to her before the residents to discuss our patient issues. Her great knowledge and unique in-sight has earned her the nickname "the cancer whisperer".

She is like a breath of fresh air. She always has funny story, a pick me up in the middle of the day. Her ability to make people laugh is great. We look at the daily map and see her name on the board and we are like "oh good Nancy is working today". Nancy is always teaching, usually in the middle of a funny story. Explaining things in a way that you will not easily forget, most times you do not even realize you have just learned something.

She is a great nurse and even better friend.