Abigail sees every interaction between a nurse and a patient as an opportunity to provide the very best care. In her role as a nurse educator, she makes sure that each clinical nurse has the knowledge and resources they need. She is always looking for ways to improve patient care, and is invested in every single aspect, from deciding which IV pump the hospital should purchase, to navigating a shortage of epidural pumps that required just-in-time nurse education to ensure safety. She mentors new nurses, meeting with them weekly to make sure they know everything they need to know. She has been known to come in on her off-hours in the middle of the night to work alongside a new nurse who needs support.
Abigail knows that, in a hospital, seemingly minor details like where a medication is stored can be a matter of life or death. Nerve blocks with local anesthetic are increasingly used for surgical pain. But a rare toxic side effect of this treatment can be fatal if not reversed quickly using lipids. Abigail noticed that the lipids were not stored in the areas where the nerve blocks were administered. She conducted a study to see how long it would take a nurse to get the lipids out of storage—too long—to argue for storing the lipids closer to where they would be needed. To do this, she worked closely with the pharmacy department and with frontline nurses. This resulted in a multidisciplinary team to address this critical workflow problem.Â
Above all, Abigail is a keen observer of exactly how care is delivered, and she is always ready to jump in with a solution.