June 2013
Marianne
Miller
,
RN, MSN
Trauma Center
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Pittsburgh
,
PA
United States

 

 

 

I am grateful for the opportunity to nominate Marianne Miller, RN, MSN, for the DAISY Award. Marianne is a "daisy" to her patients, their families, and her colleagues every day. In addition to her program responsibilities as the Trauma Performance Improvement Coordinator, Marianne also answers the "trauma line" for parents calling with questions and coordinates the outpatient Trauma Clinic. In this role, Marianne will often come to the inpatient unit to meet the child/family with the trauma CRNP to ease the transition to outpatient care.

In May of 2011 Marianne became intimately involved in the care of a two-year-old boy who was hospitalized after he was unintentionally run over by his mother in his home driveway. This patient's mother, as might be imagined, suffered intense feelings of guilt. Additionally, her life was already chaotic before she took home this child with ongoing medical needs- she has other children, some with special needs, and also struggles with resources. Marianne has worked with this mother and the patient's surgeon diligently over the past nearly two years to manage his drains, multiple appointments and need for recurrent radiologic procedures and bloodwork. She has identified additional resources for the mother, involving home care, a case manager from the insurance company, and Access. She has met the mother in the outpatient lab to facilitate obtainment of the proper bloodwork. She has maintained communication with the patient's mother and surgeon throughout this process, seeing the patient on whatever day his appointments are scheduled, outside of the usual Trauma Clinic. I truly believe that this mother would not have been nearly as likely to successfully maintain this patient outside of the hospital without Marianne's kind, caring, and compassionate nature.

Marianne has gone above and beyond to support and accommodate this mother and her schedule- calling her with reminders of upcoming tests and appointments and rescheduling them as needed after the patient did not keep the appointment or the mother requested a change. In fact, the mother has developed such a trust in Marianne that she often calls Marianne prior to calling the PCP about routine pediatric issues.

Marianne is also a HUGE support to her colleagues both within and outside of the Trauma Program. She is always amongst the first to offer congratulations or sympathy. She has excellent oral and written communication skills, and her excellent interpersonal skills consistently demonstrate her genuine caring nature. Marianne will willingly help any colleague or patient with anything to the best of her ability. In my opinion, she is most deserving of the DAISY Award.