Jill Lane has been working as a Diabetes Educator at Kennestone Hospital for over 5 years now. During that time, she has helped numerous patients learn to better manage their diabetes before being discharged home. Many of the patients Jill teaches are new to Diabetes and are being sent home on insulin, a very scary situation for most. Jill not only teaches the patient the diabetes survival skills they need until they can get to outpatient classes for further education, but most importantly, she provides comfort, understanding and a reassurance that they can go home and take care of themselves safely while continuing to live their daily lives. Many patients state that without Jill’s help, they would have been too afraid to give themselves the insulin, and therefore would probably have ended up back in the hospital. And Jill’s help doesn’t stop after she leaves the bedside. She arranges for each patient to be scheduled for outpatient diabetes education classes while they are still in the hospital, contacts that patient’s primary care physician and lets them know that she has visited that patient, and she makes a follow-up call to the patient one week after discharge to check on their progress and see if they need any further assistance. She adjusts her schedule to meet the needs of the patients and their families, she is always positive and optimistic, she works diligently with the nurses and physicians to ensure her patients are receiving diabetes best practice care and she provides the education and comfort to ensure each patient is safely discharged home. Jill deserves the DAISY Award based on her outstanding work and the compassionate care she provides every day.

Photo: Kimberly Penn, RN Shared Governance Professional Development Entity Council Lead, Jill Lane, RN, CDE.