Catherine
Mc Donald
February 2012
Catherine
Mc Donald
,
RN
Radiology Department
Carle Foundation Hospital
Urbana
,
IL
United States

 

 

 

Catherine McDonald works in the Radiology Department at Carle Foundation Hospital. She has been with Carle since 2009. A fellow employee had this to say:
Customer service, exceptional nursing care, working as a mentor, being a patient family advocate, and community involvement are all part of Cathy and come natural. She treats every patient as her own family. Cathy always puts her patient and family first. She is willing to take the time needed, going above and beyond.
An example of excellent customer service provided by Cathy included a patient Cathy cared for who left her pillow behind. Cathy took it upon herself to return the pillow to the nursing home after her shift. On another occasion, Cathy had a patient, whose procedure was delayed, causing him to be without transportation back to the nursing home. Cathy stayed after her shift to arrange transportation for the patient. The transporter was unable to take the patient and his chair. Cathy volunteered to take the patients chair to the nursing home herself.
Cathy provides exceptional and exemplary nursing care to all patients she care for. She immediately makes patients who are anxious feel comfortable buy thoroughly explaining what they can expect when they are having a procedure or study done in radiology. When Cathy is the one caring for the patient in procedures, she is constantly at the patient’s side providing comfort by holding their hand and talking them through the procedure. Cathy is much attuned to patients needs.
Cathy is constantly looking for opportunities to develop herself and others professionally. She is active in the Structural Empowerment Council and takes the information she gains from the meetings back to the nurses in radiology. Cathy has attended several conferences and has presented power points to educate her co-workers on what she has learned at the conferences. She has also presented at the advanced assessment course as a speaker. She is a good mentor for nursing students. Her energy is encouraging and shows her love for the nursing profession. She gets involved in the community in a number of ways including a recent event where she organized a raffle to raise money for a man needing eye surgery.
We feel very privileged and lucky that she is a part of our department. We can always count on Cathy to make the day much brighter and we enjoy working with her.