Tara is a day shift advanced ECLS specialist. An employee leave in the mechanical assist department left us down to one advanced specialist on the night schedule. Tara volunteered to work night shifts for one month to help balance our staffing coverage during a critical time and record ECMO census of 10 patients!
The advanced ECLS specialist is responsible for being a knowledgeable resource and clinical expertise to our teams caring for patients on ECMO. By volunteering to switch to nights for an entire month, Tara provided support to junior ECMO specialists caring for extremely ill patients staffed without an ECMO specialist peer. She effectively collaborated with teams to facilitate appropriate use of perfusion time when away from the hospital. She partnered with charge nurses and administrative supervisors to determine a staffing plan during critical nursing and ECMO specialist deficits.