January 2025 VUH Healthcare Heroes | Vanderbilt University Hospital Nursing

Nurse of the Quarter: Jenna Iten – C-Pod - From Jenna’s nomination: Jenna was assigned a psych pt today who was admitted for postpartum depression with catatonia and multiple admissions with no help in her treatment. Her spouse came out to our desk in tears with desperation wanting to know how he can help his wife get better so their kids can have a mommy again - she had 3 kids under 5. Husband also was super sad because it was her birthday and she has not smiled in weeks with her catatonia. Jenna had already been in the room and helped wash her hair. She said it been a while since anyone helped her with hygiene. After talking with the husband, Jenna came up with an idea to sing happy birthday to her. She gathered several staff members and surprised her with a song and said it was the first time she saw her patient smile at all since being hospitalized for catatonia. She came out of the room saying she was running upstairs to get her a 'sweet tea' because she apparently had not spoken in weeks and it was enough to help her feel comfortable to speak to Jenna. Her husband just cried with happiness to see his wife smile. Jenna also found a communication problem with the team, PAS, VPH and SW and everyone not at all on the same plan for the patient. She worked diligently on calling every team member until she got each person's updates and was able to find someone at VPH that agreed to help her find out how to get her back to VPH when her bed had been given away without update. Her determination to dedicate her time to her patient and family is incredible and they were so thankful for her care.

Nurse Leader of the Quarter: Taryn Atchley – C-pod - From Taryn’s nomination: A patient went to IR and accidentally took their cell phone with them. Once they left the procedure and arrived back to the unit, they realized their phone was missing. They turned on location and could see it pinging in the hospital. After multiple attempts to have staff listen for alarm we sent to the phone to help locate it possibly in linen, even AC went to IR and looked for it. Our ANM Taryn took the time to make several phone calls to find where the linen from IR went. With the patient's permission she took the laptop of patients and continued to push the alarm sound to ping the phone and went through multiple linen bags in IR utility room. She eventually found the cell phone after everyone had no luck! Her creative thinking and dedicated passion to helping this family was so appreciated by the patient and family! One morning on the way to work I got 2 flat tires driving into work. She immediately volunteered to leave work and come get me off Rosa Parks Blvd. I was beyond stressed with two flat tires and how I was going to make it to work and had 20 pounds of cookies to carry into work staff had bought. She was helpful and carried cookies into work with me and made my day extremely less stressful. Taryn goes into her day with compassion and dedication and follows through with every task thrown at her. When she completes i-rounds, she actually rounds on every patient, she even went upstairs last week to get a family lunch that she paid for when they were hungry with no money. She takes every patient need serious and staff also. I believe she deserves this award more then anyone else right now!

Ancillary Staff Member of the Quarter: Morghan Henley, SICU - From Morghan’s nomination: Morghan consistently goes above and beyond to deliver great patient care. She is always willing and eager to help out with any task. For example, we cared for a patient together who was not in the best mood at the start of our shift. Morghan helped me give him a warm, soapy bath and get him shampooed and lotioned up to help him feel better. She then skillfully helped me use the Sara Steady to mobilize him out of bed and to the recliner chair so that he could sit up to eat breakfast and watch the news. By the time we were done, we were all in a better mood, our patient was laughing and joking with us, and Morghan was an integral part of this success. This is only one example of her excellent contributions to patient care that she makes every day. Morghan has a positive attitude at work and is kind to her peers, patients, and family members. We had a patient who was not able to walk due to an injury but was getting restless sitting in his room all day. Morghan helped him get up to the wheelchair and she rolled him around the unit, introducing him to our peers in the hallway, sitting with him by the window, and taking him outside for fresh air. This not only helped the patient immensely, but it relieved some of the stress on her nurse as it freed up the nurses' time to focus on other tasks. She exudes a kind and playful energy that makes it very enjoyable to work with her