Kevin Shores
August 2020
Kevin
Shores
,
BSN, RN, CCRN
Cardiovascular ICU
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland
,
OR
United States

 

 

 

First, let me say every nurse and provider caring for my father on CVICU provided exceptional compassionate care. Kevin stands out. I am a retired Army Critical Care Nurse and in my 28 years as a clinical staff nurse, clinical nurse specialist, and nurse manager, Kevin is now on my list of nurses I most admire and respect. Kevin took the initiative on the day shift to ensure the success of my father's extubation. The medical staff wanted to take the patient off Propofol due to his blood pressure and start him on low dose Ativan. Kevin knowing the patient's adverse history with Ativan made the clinical judgment to provide direct bedside care with distraction, re-orientation, and an abundance of professional nursing care in lieu of Ativan. This took Kevin approximately four hours to achieve. The extubation was successful, and my father looked fantastic. Knowing this scenario intimately as a critical care nurse, I have absolutely no doubt that my father would not have been successfully extubated without Kevin's absolute dedication to the Art of nursing. His actions were above and beyond expected nursing care. This decision by Kevin to take the difficult course of action made a key difference in my father's outcome. This was the most dramatic of Kevin's professionalism, but his compassion and competence were always on display. Kevin and the entire nursing staff on the CVICU are an example of all I was hoping nursing would evolve into, the clinical judgment, the true empathy, and the communication skills exhibited, are all qualities that make nursing the indispensable profession it is.