Sally Young-Tan
June 2017
Sally
Tan
,
BSN, RN, CAPA
Surgicenter - Recovery
Kaiser Permanente - Irvine Medical Center
Irvine
,
CA
United States

 

 

 

Because of her invaluable contributions and dedication to the many positive changes made in our department, there is no doubt that Sally Young-Tan is a DAISY Nurse. In addition to her many responsibilities as a Charge Nurse, Sally inspires great quality care from the staff by staying current with best evidence-based practices. She implemented the use of Quese-Ease to help postoperative patients with nausea after hearing about it at a seminar. She helped spread the excitement of Magnet to the nurses by getting everyone involved in coming up with their own stories for Magnet. She held sessions with the staff, educated the staff and quizzed them. Her enthusiasm was contagious. She inspired the staff to take pride in their work and they were more than excited to share this with the Magnet appraisers.
Sally also has great intuition and a strong affinity for following through with anything that she is made aware of. Sally was a recipient of the Radiant Star award for recognizing that something was amiss with a patient's husband when he did not show up to be with his wife. After calling him, she realized he was in distress. She sent help out to the parking lot to look for this gentleman. She, herself, went out and searched for him. When she found him, she assisted the man to the Emergency Department. It was later discovered that he was having a heart attack.
On another occasion, Sally received a phone call from a patient who needed to follow up for a post-operative appointment to address his JP drain. The patient lived out of the Orange County area and needed assistance closer to home. Sally made multiple phone calls to try to help this patient. It took many attempts from several people at several locations to get this member the right provider for the treatment. Although she had minimal knowledge of the resources in the San Diego area, she pursued any leads she got and eventually, she found a Case Manager who was able to help the patient. The incident took a few days to get resolved but she persisted until she was confident the member was in good hands.
On a daily basis, Sally will jump in to help with patient care without hesitation. When there is a staffing shortage, she automatically takes a lineup of her own. She has strong problem-solving skills and often times comes up with solutions that the managers and leaders willingly accept.
Sally is definitely the heart of the Surgicenter Pre-and Post Op!