Katty Painter, BSN, RN

I wanted to take a spare moment to recognize this individual for her work ethic, critical thinking, and most importantly, her positive demeanor and attitude every day at work, especially during the more stressful occasions. I would like to share a specific moment with this nurse that incorporates all these particular attributes.

We had a patient who was initially a primary orthopedic patient. They were on our floor for an extended period of time status post transferring to us from the ICU. This particular shift, the patient complained of chest pain and shortness of breath. The charge nurse and I went to the bedside. The patient’s primary nurse, Katty, then followed.

We assisted Katty in calling CCAT, the attending physician, and placing lab orders, a CXR, and an ABG per verbal orders. We were thankful two student nurses were willing to scribe the entire CCAT for us.

From her arrival to the room, Katty was clear and concise with delegation of tasks from the bedside. She was also very thorough with her initial report to CCAT regarding the patient’s acute symptoms, vitals, PMH, admitting diagnosis, and any of their pre-existing co-morbidities that could be relevant to their current change in condition and/or cognition.

Katty’s overall knowledge of her patient and her ability to articulate probable causes for her patient’s acute symptoms whilst working with CCAT to establish if specific labs or diagnostic testing was needed was truly commendable. My observation of her collaboration with the team exemplifies a level of critical thinking, proficiency, and proactiveness that is indeed valuable and cherished within our role as not only a nurse, but as the primary set of eyes for our patients’ bedside. Katty is a true advocate of this.

Katty is the type of individual who goes above and beyond with patient care. She has a warm and genuinely caring nature that is known by both patients and peers. Her way of explaining the plan of care to her patients and their families is clear, concise, and in sequence to the current moment.

Katty spoke to this patient’s family about what we had done for her symptoms prior and the plan of going to CT and then for a cardiac procedure with the probability of transferring back to ICU for stabilization. She was able to verbalize an accurate timeline of events to the family whilst answering any questions they had pertaining to either the patient’s condition or whom to talk to for further details on the specific procedures.

The charge nurse, nursing instructor, and I made sure Katty’s other patients were cared for while she attended to this patient. Katty had been at bedside with the patient since 8:30 a.m. It was not until 12:30 p.m. that Katty had left the room to sit and review her other patients. She maintained her composure and a positive attitude throughout despite these unforeseen stresses that may have deterred her overall workflow for the day.

Overall, I am deeply impressed with Katty’s capability to not only collaborate with our team and the multidisciplinary team, but simultaneously manage an organized system covering the prioritization of tasks for this patient as well as explaining them to the family at bedside and keeping them at ease.

I am thankful from a leadership standpoint that we have Katty as part of our core team. She encompasses qualities that make an exemplary nurse. I can truly say that she is a natural, and that her overall skill set and persona align tremendously with this profession.