This happened on PM shift. I was Charge RN but didn’t have many triage calls as I normally do. I made myself available to my team and paid special attention to how the staff was engaging with the patients since this is a current goal on our KPI board. 

We had a patient who was recently incarcerated and was proving to be manipulative with the potential to get aggressive and impulsive quickly. Jenna not only set appropriate boundaries, but she communicated them clearly and respectfully with the patient (even though he was NOT being respectful with her). 

It’s hard to keep yourself in check every day for hours at a time, never exhibiting frustrations, no matter how troublesome and demanding the patient is. But she did. She kept cool and calm. 

Equally important: It’s very easy to “give in” to patient requests that seem insignificant – but I feel a good psych RN knows this easy path leads to trouble later. She acted like a seasoned veteran! She comes to work and always helps out. She’s due for recognition.