ABPANC Awards
ABPANC Announces 2003 Recipient of the ABPANC Advocacy AwardThe 3rd Annual Advocacy Award was presented at the CPAN/CAPA Celebration Breakfast April 7, 2003 to Marie Dittmar, RN, CPAN, Staff Nurse in the PACU at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, Syracuse, New York. This award publicly recognizes a CPAN or CAPA certified nurse who exemplifies leadership as a patient advocate and is the highest accolade given to a certified nurse. Nominated by her Nurse Manager, Maureen Iocono, BSN, RN, CPAN, the following story was submitted describing only one of many instances when Marie truly advocated for a patient and his family. Marie was presented with the beautiful Lladro Nurse Statue, a $300 cash award, plaque, and a scholarship for the next recertification fee. Read the winning story as follows: Story It is difficult to tell only one story that adequately describes Marie Dittmar as a patient advocate. She does this every day, as she is patient focused, and treats her patients as though they are family. She has been in the postanesthesia care unit for 15 years; she is an informal leader; her interpersonal skills influence others to accomplish goals and raise the bar for excellence in the unit. She is a mentor and preceptor, instills confidence, provokes interest in high tech/high touch nursing and fosters critical thinking. One particular afternoon, Marie insisted that a family be brought to the bedside of a patient who experienced a failed AAA repair. Her coworkers resisted, due in part to he intensive work underway and also since they were not comfortable with what would be asked of them by the family. Marie, who had lost her own husband after a complex open-heart procedure six years ago, realized the significance of having the family at his bedside. She put her arm around the patient’s wife and brought several of the children in at the same time. She had explained how different the patient would look – but knew nothing could truly prepare this wife to see the countless tubes, monitors, dressings and body fluids entering and exiting the patient. Marie guided this wife, physically and emotionally to the bedside - working her way around the pumps and monitors – lifting up ventilator tubing – ducking under hemodynamic lines, She lowered the side rail, searched for the patient’s hand, and joined it with his wife’s. She encouraged the wife to lean down, speaking into her husband’s ear and to let him know how she felt about him. She assured the family that he could hear, he wanted them there and that whatever was said would help him. As he spent his last hour of life, Marie stood with the wife and her children. She explained interventions simply. She took the time to restate whatever the physicians talked about while the family was at the bedside. She offered them privacy as they said their last words – but they asked her to stay with them. She had become their lifeline, and helped them to focus on what was really important in a significant and powerful moment in time. Marie’s holistic approach to her patients promotes caring about people as individuals with attention to their special needs. The best part of this story is this: Marie merely expects this of herself – she doesn’t think she’s special at all!
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