Cecilia Caryl
May 2019
Cecilia
Caryl
,
RN, BSN
Surgical Services
Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital
Newport
,
OR
United States

 

 

 

I have worked with Cecilia Caryl for over a year now and I have never met a nurse who is such a patient advocate. One of our patients had a misunderstanding regarding their pain medicine prescription and had already left to go pick it up. This family called back and told her the prescription had not been sent, and the patient was in pain and waiting at the pharmacy. Cecilia exhaustedly tracked down the physician who wrote the order and helped expedite to meet the needs of our patient.
Compassion links the entirety of a nurse's scope of practice, not only what one is obligated to do under licensure, but what one is compelled to do as a human being; make a difference and make it count. An example of this happened just the other day. I was walking around the corner and overheard Cecilia talking to one of her patients. He was elderly, alone, and had just lost his wife of 60+ years just a couple of months ago. He was telling her that he should be over the grief of losing his best friend and companion. He felt weak that he hadn't gotten over the loss yet. I watched Cecilia hold his hand and tell him, "You know what I read the other day about grief? The article was saying that it takes one month of grieving for every year you were married." He looked at her with tears in his eyes, and Cecilia said, "I give you permission to grieve." He gave her a hug as she was discharging him home.
I would like to share one more story regarding Cecilia's clinical expertise. We had just finished surgery on a young patient after hours and she was recovering him. This patient had a diagnosis where we could have expected potential sepsis. Cecilia looked beyond what the expectations were and really saw what was happening to this patient. She used her critical thinking skills and escalated the care of this patient. Her quick reaction to this life-threatening event saved this patient's life. This is a rare event that happens to surgery patients 1/100,000 surgeries. Most nurses have practiced for years and had never seen this in the operating room. Thank you, Cecilia, for being the nurse that you are.