November 2009
Carolyn
Poulakos
,
BSN, RN, CCRN, CNRN
Surgical Intensive Care Unit
University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
Iowa City
,
IA
United States

 

 

 

Carolyn works weekend shifts in the SICU but during the week comes on her own time to meet with families of critically ill patients in the SICU waiting room. She provides these families with education, information and support helping them with everything from helping them understand their loved ones medical condition, to finding them places to stay. One day Carolyn met with the wife of a patient in SICU finding out that this woman was all alone at the hospital and had been staying in the waiting room in the same clothes. Carolyn took the woman to her own home to let her wash her clothes. While at Carolyn's home., this woman's husband died and carolyn took her back to the hospital staying with her for 4 hours until someone from her hometown over 200 miles away could come and get her. Carolyn Poulakos is a nurse with selfless kindness for others as well as being an expert clinician.