Beverly consistently goes above and beyond in caring for our dialysis access patients during the preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative process. She speaks with them on an individual basis, encouraging and educating them about dialysis access. She goes out of her way to meet with the patients in various clinics, speaks with their dialysis team in multiple outpatient dialysis centers, and always educates dialysis center staff members. She follows patients from our first consultation and ongoing, also working with the vascular lab and interventional radiology to make sure our veterans receive timely treatment and communicates with the veterans, their families, and interdisciplinary health care professionals along the way. She worked diligently to help train our new vascular surgery care manager to efficiently run our vascular surgery clinics and manage flow. Facility staff and dialysis access patients all look forward to meeting with her and remember her by name.

Specifically, we had a younger veteran in need of permanent dialysis access whom we had difficulty contacting to coordinate his care. He had various periods of hospitalization at the VAMC and in a private hospital close to his home. Beverly worked with staff at the private hospital, his dialysis center, his family members, and the patient to assist, educate, and coordinate his surgical care. He now has a permanent AVF and is doing well on dialysis. His overall quality of life has improved. Beverly was instrumental in helping this young man, and I believe without her, he would not have had the same outcome. I have worked at the VA now for over 30 years, and worked in the private sector prior. I rarely run into such a well-rounded, caring, dedicated, and compassionate nurse. Please consider Beverly for this award. She certainly deserves it.