I am nominating my colleague and mentor Paula Schindler for The Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses. Paula Schindler is truly an exceptional nurse, patient advocate, and nurse mentor. Paula has been a nurse for 40 years and has specialized in wound, ostomy, and continence care for over 26 years. Her years of experience and knowledge have benefited a multitude of patients and staff here at St. Tammany. It is quite common to get a phone call or a knock at the door from physicians, surgeons, and other interdisciplinary staff looking for Paula and her expertise. She is one of two nurses who are certified by WOCN certifying board in ostomy care and is responsible for providing care to the majority of patients in our enterostomal clinic as well as marking & preparing patients prior to upcoming ostomy surgeries. Patients come from the local north shore region and across the southern Mississippi region to see Paula in the enterostomal clinic. Paula’s clinical excellence and critical thinking is utilized with every patient she sees. Just the other day we received an urgent phone call from a doctor with the STPH wound care clinic asking for a patient to be seen as soon as possible in the ostomy clinic the same day. Although Paula had a full in-patient assignment, she was able to make arrangements to accommodate the patient with an appointment within one hour of the initial request. Upon receiving the patient for the appointment, Paula demonstrated excellent critical thinking skills by quickly identifying the patient required emergent treatment. Paula went above and beyond by accompanying the patient and family to the ER. She provided compassionate nursing care while also collaborating with the multi-disciplinary team to ensure that the patient received the highly specialized enterostomal care they required. Paula devoted over 4 hours to meeting the needs of this patient.
In closing, Paula Schindler is an extraordinary nurse who deserves to be recognized for her nursing excellence, compassion, and extraordinary care she has provided to our team members and patients here at St. Tammany Health System.