I am currently a Hematology clinic nurse in the Cancer Center. Kaitlyn Farrell exemplifies what it means to be a nurse and an exceptional person. Kaitlyn goes out of her way to help patients, their family members, and her fellow co-workers. Not a day goes by that she does not go above and beyond for everyone.

There are so many examples of how Kaitlyn goes above and beyond for all of her patients. Since starting in Navigation, she has been able to navigate patients from Inpatient to outpatient in order to get the patients to their all appointments- tests, biopsies, and dental. She realized that when she started, she had limited resources for connecting patients to other providers within the health system. She repeatedly reached out to other specialties and providers to make connections for patients. She follows them for months and is an exceptional patient advocate for all her patients. She keeps her patients and families informed while in the hospital as well.

When patients are admitted as inpatients, she visits the patients and makes sure the family is connected to the inpatient team to help keep everyone informed on the treatment plans. This also includes when they are discharged. She gets them reestablished with the outpatient providers in a timely manner and constantly keeps the patients informed. For example, head and neck patients can end up needing a trach and g-tube. She makes sure they don't leave the hospital without supplies. And following up to make sure they have everything they need at home. Patients have stayed here at Temple just because of Kaitlyn and her awesome personality, as well as her supportive nature and her reassurances.

Also, by re-educating patients, even if it takes multiple times to understand what is going on and what they need to do. She makes sure patients have appropriate language materials as well. She has often made her own materials to help with language barriers. Her patience and persistence are another one of her many talents. Multiple providers reach out to her because she knows how to get the patients where they need to be. She single-handedly connected patients from inpatient to outpatient by spearheading an email specifically for newly diagnosed malignant hematology patients. Heme patients are usually diagnosed as inpatients, and getting them from inpatient to outpatient was challenging. This email helps the fellows connect the patients with Kaitlyn and helps get the process moving on getting the important tests needed for diagnosis, as well as any needs the patient may have.

Also, to keep everyone informed about the patients, she helped build a format for a nurse navigation form and helped develop the nurse navigation referral. Kaitlyn has also seen patients in the hallways who needed help and assistance. She will stop what she is doing and help. She saw a Spanish-speaking patient in the hallway, used Google Translate, and walked them to their appointment in a completely different location than where she was headed. Just to make sure they were where they needed to be and did not miss their appointment. She is an exceptional nurse, person, and overall, an awesome human being who should be recognized for all her hard work and dedication. We are truly lucky to have her on our team.