Tamara is an extraordinary nurse who is a highly-skilled, extremely knowledgeable, and compassionate team member that consistently demonstrates and promotes a high quality of patient care. Tamara has worked in our operating room for more than 14 years. She is one of the operating room charge nurses, a positive role model, and a collaborative interprofessional team player. Tamara respects and values all members of the perioperative team. She is always willing to share her knowledge and expertise and precept new operating room nurses, her contributions are greatly appreciated and valued by the operating room team.

Tamara prides herself on ensuring her patients receive the safest patient care. Recently when she was the charge nurse during a weekend shift a situation occurred where she exuded autonomous and innovative advocacy for her patient. It seemed like a very straight forward case, she and her teammates prepared OR, confirmed with the physician that all needed supplies/implants were available and transferred the patient into the operating room. The patient was safely intubated, prepped and draped. During this time Tamara noticed an increase in room temperature, she quickly checked the monitor and noticed the change in room pressure. At this point in time, the high room temperature caused the instruments and implants to show condensation, which indicated contamination. Tamara immediately notified the surgeon and escalated the situation to the nursing supervisor and PCD.
After collaboratively discussing the situation it was determined that the implants would require at a minimum an hour and a half to be reprocessed. To ensure the safety of the patient and avoid a delay in the procedure and prolonged-time under anesthesia, Tamara suggested utilizing a different instrument/implant system that was currently in house and sterile. The surgeon, as well as the rest of the surgical team agreed and Tamara, lead the team to reopen a new sterile setup, re- prep and drape and communicated this plan of care with our CSPD partners. It seemed like in a short few minutes the new instruments and implants were quickly retrieved and the team was ready to safely proceed with the procedure.

It is an honor and privilege to work with Tamara, her commitment to patient and her team is humbling. In this example, Tamara displayed how impactful autonomous resourcefulness can be. The OR environment poses a great challenge in regards to time sensitivity and advocacy. She had minutes to make a decision while advocating for her patients who couldn't advocate for themselves.