Christina Miller
January 2014
Christina
Miller
,
RN
Operating Room
Mission Hospital
Asheville
,
NC
United States

 

 

 

1) Chrissy has demonstrated a "can do" attitude in all aspects of the operating room. She is kind and considerate of the patient, who is usually apprehensive, and she is well respected by her peers. She cheerfully will undertake any task requested of her, and then she will see it to completion. Any extra things needed in surgery are quickly located and brought into the operating suite.

...

2) Chrissy Miller, RN, is an outstanding nurse who works at the St. Joseph's campus operating room. She has been in the Mission system for over a decade, and she continues to improve the quality and safety of care for the patients with whom she comes in contact. Her compassion towards the patients, patients' families, and towards other hospital staff should be applauded and held up as a standard of practice for all of us to achieve.

Her job title is an operating room nurse circulator. However, she is so much more than that. She demonstrates her compassion for patients from the first moment she meets them, until well after she passes off their care to other health care personnel.

If a patient requests, she will pray with them before their surgery. This puts the patient in a much calmer and relaxed mode mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually before undergoing a stressful procedure. She also is known for hand-holding and calmly talking with the patient in order to distract them before and during anesthesia induction when the patient's anxiety can be at the highest point.

She pays attention to very little details to ensure patient safety and comfort. Her patients are more likely to suffer from blanket toxicity than they are from hypothermia. Cushioning knees, preventing pressure points, keeping patients covered for privacy even when the patient is unaware under anesthesia... The list goes on. She also tries to optimize OR time. She probably has the fastest OR turnover times of any OR nurse in the Mission Health System. Somehow, she is able to motivate people in order to get the next case started as quickly as possible.

She is so well known for being an outstanding nurse that she was actually pulled from the St. Joseph's campus to go to the Memorial campus and care for a high profile patient who came to Mission for surgery. She cares for her patients and makes an immediate emotional connection with them upon meeting them for the first time. That is a rare gift. She truly cares about what happens to the patient even after their surgery is complete.

She gets invested in the lives of people with whom she works. She has helped to raise money for co-workers in need. She has arranged celebrations and farewell parties for others. She has also offered her home when other co-workers needed a place to rest their head. Her personality is a beacon of light to which everyone is attracted. Cheerful and enthusiastic don't begin to describe her.

Because of everything Chrissy Miller, RN, does, I believe every patient she comes in contact with has a better outcome; and, overall, those patients have a more positive experience during their operation. She ought to be the poster child for MERIT (Mercy, Excellence, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Teamwork) in the operating room.