November 2013
Diane
Kozik
,
BSN, RN
Psychiatry
Advocate Christ Medical Center and Advocate Hope Children's Hospital -Oak Lawn
Oak Lawn
,
IL
United States

 

 

 

Diane is a truly exceptional nurse who has worked in the psychiatry department for 33 years. She is so compassionate to our patients and always exhibits empathy. Diane has great assessment skills, and always knows what her patients need. Diane is a professional at de-escalating patients. She is a great listener to our patients, and always puts their needs first. Diane serves as a preceptor on the unit. She collaborates well with our social workers and physicians, and ensures our patients have all of their needs met during and after the hospital stay. Diane is well respected by her peers, and they do feel like working with her is a gift. She is one of those nurses, when done with her own work, will see what she can do to support both her team mates and the charge nurse. Diane goes above and beyond for her patients.

Diane recently ran out to Walgreens for a patient. This particular patient had a dilemma about her discharge medications. Patient was going to be discharged at 6 am the next day via medicar and there was no way she could get her medicines refilled at 6am. The patient was very anxious about this and was worried about going home without the new prescribed psych medications. Diane made sure the prescriptions were called in, and ran out to and pick them from Walgreens. This patient was very thankful for what she did. This patient was discharged the following morning at 6am with a smile on her face. The following morning, Diane came back to work on time even she left work that night late.

Diane is truly an example of an extraordinary nurse who took her own time to give the best care possible to a patient. On another occasion this year, Diane gave a patient $30 because they did not have money to get their meds at discharge. This patient was so grateful that he came back to tell me (her manager) after discharge about this and how touched he was by her compassion. Diane is an asset to our team, and hospital.