Britni
Saint John
November 2012
Britni
Saint John
,
RN
Unit 6A
UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
,
PA
United States

 

 

 

Recently we had a 19-month old trauma patient with a skull fracture and the incidental finding of a prolonged PT/PTT. On post-trauma day #1 Britni worked with the IV Team to obtain needed repeat labs (3rd set!) as easily as possible from this patient. This also involved speaking with the lab and reading the policy re: types of tubes, volume needed, and total volume allowed. When this 3rd set of labs came back also abnormal, Britni collaborated with the trauma CRNP to determine the best plan for future blood draws including overnight hydration and timing of bloodwork to allow for adequate rest as well as timely results. Despite everyone's best efforts and intentions, there was a miscommunciation with hematology and all of the labs they had wanted were not drawn (not ordered) with the planned morning labs. Britni then went above and beyond to work with the blood bank to ensure that the tubes already sent could be used to run the blood tests as re-priortized by hematology. This required many conversations amongst various trauma team members, hematology, and the lab/blood bank. While the child was completely stable, Britni wanted to do her very best to prevent any unneccesary sticks, support the parents through this scary process of an unanticipated finding, and provide hematology with all the information needed to make an accurate diagnosis. Britni did all this with her standard competence, good humor, professionalism, and desire to always do the right thing for the patient and family. Britni is a wonderful advocate for her patients, and in my opinion, most deserving of the DAISY Award.