Bill Caldwell
April 2026
Bill
Caldwell
,
RN
5 West - ICU
SSM Health - St. Mary's Hospital Madison
Madison
,
WI
United States
There is no doubt that his patients have had better outcomes because Bill was caring for them.
There are too many specific examples to list about how Bill goes above and beyond for his patients, because it happens every single shift he works. Any patient that Bill is caring for is in great hands and well taken care of.
One specific strength of Bill’s is promoting mobility in ICU patients, especially those who are on a ventilator. There was a young, long-term ICU patient whom Bill was frequently assigned to. This patient struggled a lot with anxiety from his complex medical status. However, this did not stop Bill from going above and beyond to complete resistive exercises in bed multiple times throughout his shift and talking the patient through coping strategies to manage his anxiety, all while the patient was on a ventilator.
With Bill’s help and encouragement, we were able to mobilize this patient on the ventilator to initiate early mobility. This allowed the patient to rebuild his strength and endurance, along with shortening his time on the ventilator.
Not only is Bill an exceptional nurse, but he is also viewed as such an asset to the interdisciplinary team. If Bill has one of the patients we are consulted on for Occupational and/or Physical therapy, we know that that patient is getting exercised, mobilized, and out of bed with Bill even before therapy walks in the door for the first time.
Bill even goes so far as to give our therapy team a second set of hands to ensure safe mobility, even if the patient is not assigned to him. Bill is an exceptional advocate for intubated patients. After receiving education on the total lift bed, he was eager and motivated to implement best practices with his patients using this new piece of equipment, despite it being new to the hospital.
He is the first one to give credit to everyone else on the care team for his patients' successful outcomes and ability to get off the ventilator, but rarely accepts the credit himself. There is no doubt that his patients have had better outcomes because Bill was caring for them. He deserves this recognition and praise for all the lives he has changed, ours included.
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This is Bill's 2nd DAISY Award!
One specific strength of Bill’s is promoting mobility in ICU patients, especially those who are on a ventilator. There was a young, long-term ICU patient whom Bill was frequently assigned to. This patient struggled a lot with anxiety from his complex medical status. However, this did not stop Bill from going above and beyond to complete resistive exercises in bed multiple times throughout his shift and talking the patient through coping strategies to manage his anxiety, all while the patient was on a ventilator.
With Bill’s help and encouragement, we were able to mobilize this patient on the ventilator to initiate early mobility. This allowed the patient to rebuild his strength and endurance, along with shortening his time on the ventilator.
Not only is Bill an exceptional nurse, but he is also viewed as such an asset to the interdisciplinary team. If Bill has one of the patients we are consulted on for Occupational and/or Physical therapy, we know that that patient is getting exercised, mobilized, and out of bed with Bill even before therapy walks in the door for the first time.
Bill even goes so far as to give our therapy team a second set of hands to ensure safe mobility, even if the patient is not assigned to him. Bill is an exceptional advocate for intubated patients. After receiving education on the total lift bed, he was eager and motivated to implement best practices with his patients using this new piece of equipment, despite it being new to the hospital.
He is the first one to give credit to everyone else on the care team for his patients' successful outcomes and ability to get off the ventilator, but rarely accepts the credit himself. There is no doubt that his patients have had better outcomes because Bill was caring for them. He deserves this recognition and praise for all the lives he has changed, ours included.
***
This is Bill's 2nd DAISY Award!