It is rare for a youngster to be a patient in Blessing Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). But when 3-year-old Kenadi Woodson and her family needed a higher level of care than expected, three Blessing nursing units teamed up to deliver it.
After surgery, Kenadi needed more complex monitoring as she recovered than first anticipated. Normally, when a pediatric patient needs a higher level of care, they are sent to Springfield, Illinois, or St. Louis, Missouri. But Blessing’s team decided that, through teamwork, they could meet little Kenadi’s needs without making her and her family travel 100 miles.
“The Post Anesthesia Care Unit (recovery room) monitored Kenadi from after her surgery until the end of the day, and then provided us the equipment needed to care for and monitor her in the ICU overnight,” said Kendra Meany, MSN, RN, manager, ICU. “The Women and Children Unit sent a nurse to ICU overnight to support our care of Kenadi, and in return ICU sent a nurse to the Women and Children Unit to keep them at their normal staffing level overnight.”
“It was an amazing example of three nursing teams coming together to provide care to this wonderful little girl, so she and her family could receive the care needed without having to leave their hometown.”
After her overnight stay, Kenadi went home the next day, as you can see by the picture, with a big smile on her face as she said goodbye to ICU nurse Lisa Surratt.