March 2010
Susanne
Matthews
,
RN
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Seattle Children's
Seattle
,
WA
United States

 

 

 

Susanne Matthews
RN, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Susanne is a charge nurse in the Pediatric and Cardiac ICUs. Her responsibilities demand that she oversee an extremely varied array of diagnoses in children from infancy to your adulthood, and I cannot say enough about Susanne’s extraordinary performance in this role. Her ability to immediately assess a situation and respond accordingly has saved countless lives. From recognizing a need to titrate cardiac drips, to identifying early signs of a need for intubation, to diverting or managing ECMO crises, she has consistently impressed me with her knowledge base, confidence, and sincere dedication to her patients, staff, and overall work excellence. She is also an incredible asset to the ECMO team. Her experience and competence are evident as she seems to easily manage the critical situations that arise on a daily basis. Fro the specialists on the ECMO team, just know that Susanne is on duty is an enormous relief. Her leadership style is very no-nonsense: she knows what need to be done, and how to accomplish her goal of same patient assignments and appropriate delegation of resources in the most effective way, but she is also very tender-hearted. She genuinely cares about her patients and their families, and is dedicated to supporting the staff in their endeavors. I learn something new from Susanne every day that we work together, and I appreciate her spirit of teamwork, her dedication to her duty, and her ability to recognize that there is always a little light, even in the darkest of situations.