Amanda Settles consistently shows excellence in all the many roles she serves our patients in, as a bedside nurse, relief lead, house supervisor, tasker, and phlebotomist. Amanda is trusted by leadership as she serves our nursing staff by leading skills days. Amanda is very compassionate at the bedside, going above and beyond to jump in and help bathe patients in the ED awaiting admission, jumping in to help EVS clean rooms when their workload is heavy, searching the hospital high and low for particular snacks or beverages a patient desires, answering the call to place multiple midlines a shift, etc. She often works ahead on task lists to decrease the workload of the next staff member. She is a source of laughter for everyone, and I am grateful she is part of our team here at Lakeside.

I would like to formally recognize Amanda for going above and beyond when in the House Supervisor role. Every time she fills in, I know I can count on her, but this past weekend really stood out. I have several instances from the other weekend that really stand out. We worked a stretch of three days together, and she was a lifesaver.

On Saturday morning, a patient was discharged from upstairs and returned to the ER due to confusion regarding home antibiotic infusions. There should have been home health care set up, but confusion with orders left the patient with the antibiotics, but no education or ability to infuse them. Amanda came to the ER and completed all the inpatient discharge education regarding home infusions. She also spoke with home health and ensured all the orders were correct so that the patient could receive home care.

The following day, a patient had a urostomy that was a little different system than we usually see. We did not have the correct supplies to change the urostomy. Amanda hunted all over the hospital to find something to work, then when she came down my ER RN was unsure as to how to do it. Rather than just doing it for the RN, Amanda took the time to educate her and demonstrate how to do it, so my RN would know how to do it in the future.

Amanda consistently advocated for the ER when I was getting pushback about bed placement. When beds were assigned, she would come to the ER and offer to immediately take patients upstairs to help facilitate patient care.
On Sunday, we were super busy with critical patients and also staff-challenged. It only took one phone call to Amanda, and she came down and jumped right in, answering phones and assisting with patient care. She also later that day took a psych patient upstairs with security to ensure the patient got a shower before transferring to the psych hospital.

Amanda is such a tremendous help when she is the house supervisor and always goes above and beyond to support staff and patients.