Melissa is one of our lead nurses in the PPC Room. She always goes above and beyond during her calls to patients and families. Additionally, her positive and gentle attitude towards other PPC nurses makes her an approachable leader in our small group of nurses who are trained to make these calls. One call in particular went above and beyond what her job required of her and deserves recognition. One of the patients who was having a procedure done in 2 days had had multiple time changes to their procedure start time. This means that after the PPC nurse had already called the mother to inform her of the check-in times and fasting times, the OR made a change to the schedule, which then required the nurse to reach out to the family again to inform them of the changes. This had happened multiple times in the day for this one particular patient, which can create confusion for families.

Melissa, as the PPC lead, did her due diligence at the end of her shift and checked charting to ensure that all of the OR times matched what the PPC caller had told the family. It seemed that the charting was not matching up. Melissa, at the end of her shift, double-checked again with the OR to confirm the time and then called the mother back to see what times she had been told. Unfortunately, there had been yet another time change, and this family reiterated that they would not be able to make the new check-in time and that, unfortunately, they were going to have to cancel the procedure. Rather than cancelling the procedure outright, Melissa stayed on the phone to question the family more and realized there was a complex social situation. Melissa was on the phone with this parent for an hour, trying to come up with a plan for childcare for the parent’s other children and determine how to fit her child into getting their procedure done.

Melissa reached out to different providers and OR schedulers to see if any provider could add it to their busy days to accommodate this child and family. This situation was extended to the next day, where Melissa picked right back up and was finally able to coordinate a time that would work for the family and the OR. This allowed the patient to undergo their surgery and avoid a delay/reschedule. Most nurses would not have put this amount of energy and effort into rearranging an OR to accommodate one patient. But Melissa did. And it made all the difference in the world for this family and patient! Melissa truly makes a difference in her interactions with patients and families and is deserving of a DAISY Award.