June 2010
Lindsay
Cooper
,
RN
MICU/CCU
UCLA HEALTH (CA)
Los Angeles
,
CA
United States

 

 

 

Lindsay Cooper, MICU
Lindsay Cooper was my mother's nurse in ICU on Monday night, October 26th.
My mother was at UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital from Saturday, October 24th - Thursday, October 29th. We had the opportunity to see the work and behavior with respect to our mother of several nurses.
I must say that Lindsay was the best ICU nurse we had at UCLA:
1. When taking our mother down for the MRI, she kept me informed every 15 minutes as to how my mom was doing. This was exceptionally important because my mother was having uncontrolled vomiting and chest pains from labile blood pressure that would go up in a matter of minutes or seconds without warning.
Keeping me informed of how my mother was doing showed me that Lindsay put my mom first in her care and concern, not making her job easy by keeping to herself.
2. In the ICU, Lindsay was exceptionally well informed of the physician's instructions on how to keep my mother's blood pressure under control to mitigate vomiting, chest pains, etc.
a. She prepared the necessary medications before they were needed so as to not delay administering them once they were needed, realizing the urgency of the matter.
b. Lindsay listened to my mother's caregiver and me regarding how we take care of my mother at home and our conversations with the attending physician. She used this information to put my mom first - not the other way around as we saw all other ICU nurses put themselves first by constantly emphasizing their experience in nursing and how they know best. Ego was not her driving interest.
Plus she has a pleasing, flexible personal manner that augments her exceptional nursing skills and knowledge.
3. Lindsay's defining excellent qualities were:
a. Her foremost and obvious concern for our mother's well being.
b. Lindsay showed by example that she is a natural:
1. she was very knowledgeable;
2. she was very fast moving as compared to most other ICU nurses who moved slowly and chit chatted with colleagues;
3. she was all business and did not let anything distract her from the job at hand.
4. It was obvious that Lindsay loves nursing and cares sincerely about her patients - and more importantly, she treats her patients like human beings, not merely patients.

On subsequent nights - Tuesday and Wednesday - we looked for Lindsay hoping that she would be our nurse. We were disappointed that either she had those nights off or was not assigned to my mother.
In summary, both my mother's caregiver and I came to the same conclusion: Lindsay was the best ICU nurse at UCLA-Santa Monica and we are grateful for her outstanding service to my mom and to us.