I would like to recognize Lori Herrick for going above and beyond for one of our psychiatric patients who has been to the ER several times in the last couple of months. Lori contacted the psychiatric outpatient clinic for an outpatient referral. The outpatient referral was unknown to the ER staff, so she called to get clarification on how to proceed. The OP clinic reported that a 25-page referral packet needed to be sent to the patient. The patient would need to fill it out and return it to them before they could see the patient. Lori, knowing the patient and his background with ongoing non-compliance, took it upon herself to have the referral packet sent to herself and planned to have the clinic care coordinator help the patient fill it out on the next primary care visit.

She presented to work the next day to see that the patient did not show for the clinic appointment. The patient was pending inpatient psychiatric placement in the hospital. She contacted the care coordinator to bring up the paperwork so she could go over it with the patient. As the staff were working on the patient transfer process, she took it upon herself to go into the patient’s room and discuss and fill out the 25-page referral for the patient to have a plan after IP psychiatric treatment. This type of nursing, in my eyes, is above and beyond. It is often missed in the day-to-day routine as a nurse. I commend Lori for going the extra mile and taking the time needed for our patients.