Kate is an extraordinary nurse whose willingness to go above and beyond is not missed. We recently had a very young and anxious patient who needed inpatient chemotherapy. Kate took extra time to connect with both the patient and her family, calming her nerves and offering clear directions as to her expected course of treatment.

As an experienced oncologic nurse, Kate understood that this particular regimen had a high rate of hypersensitivity reactions. On the day inpatient chemotherapy was scheduled, Kate made sure she could be present. The patient did not know that Kate had rescheduled an appointment she had to be able to support the inpatient nursing team with the drug administration. She made sure to alert the inpatient team of the drug, potential side effects, and the risk for reaction.

The impact Kate had by showing thoughtful planning and preparation was proven as the patient did have a reaction within the first five minutes. Ready as ever, she was able to step in and give medications efficiently to help minimize the patient's discomfort and fear. The patient recovered well and received the remainder of the drug without any further events.

Her extraordinary nursing was evident again with her interaction with another young and anxious patient with a rare Mayan dialect called Q’echi. While the patient was able to understand Spanish at a basic level, she noticed that things needed to be rephrased several times to get a point across and that there were gaps in the patient’s understanding. This was okay in the inpatient setting, but she knew he had an upcoming appointment with the provider to discuss the patient’s prognosis and treatment plan, and wanted to advocate for the patient so that she could fully understand the conversation.

Kate took the initiative to research his native language to find more support, located an organization that specialized in medical interpretation for this dialect, and reached out to Language Services to help bridge a connection. Ultimately, the patient decided to go with hospice and was connected to Global Health to support the patient in getting back home to his family. However, this was just one example of Kate paying attention to detail and going above and beyond to advocate for patients.

Kate is constantly thinking outside of the box, focusing on what the patient may need to make their treatments successful. Her compassion shines bright, and while being admitted to the hospital for chemotherapy and care is likely one of the scariest times for our patients, she is there to support them and connects them to our outpatient team seamlessly.