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The Visitor in Room 421
Date: October 26, 2009
Ask her manager, and she’ll tell you Kristie Burt has all the qualities you’d hope to find a nurse. She’s thorough, detail-oriented, compassionate, patient and she listens to what her patients tell her. But she doesn’t stop there. Kristie extends that same listening ear to her patients’ visitors as well.
A nurse in Floyd’s surgical nursing department, Kristie was caring for a patient in room 421 one July day when one of the patient’s visitors asked her a question. The visitor had been having some pain for several months and had noticed a change in the way her breast looked. She thought she might have shingles or a skin infection, and asked Kristie to take a look.
Kristie laid aside her other responsibilities to talk to the visitor and to briefly examine her breast. Kristie immediately recognized the visitor had a potentially serious health issue and encourage her to go to The Breast Center at Floyd. Kristie escorted the visitor to The Breast Center right around noon that day to find out if an appointment could be scheduled for her.
After hearing about the visitor’s issue, The Breast Center staff quickly went into action, securing a financial counselor, who gained 100 percent coverage for the patient to be seen that very day, and clearing the way for her to be examined.
A breast exam, mammogram, ultrasound and ultrasound-guided biopsy confirmed Kristie’s suspicions: The patient had advanced-stage breast cancer. She was even able to meet Dr. Paul Brock, who was in The Breast Center seeing patients that day.
This visitor was overwhelmed with the response she received from the staff–and it all started with a nurse who cared enough to listen and to help her seek help.
We hope for the best outcome for this patient, and we know that she will have a tough course of treatment, but the situation would have been much worse, possibly even untreated altogether, had Kristie not listened and reacted as swiftly as she did.
Our staff is currently focusing on a patient care initiative called words that work.
We’re encouraging every staff member to take to stop and ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you? I am happy to help.”
Kristie displayed the value of words that work that July day. She offered to help, and made a life-changing difference in the life of the visitor.
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