Top Team Peak Performers 2021: Neighborhood Clinic Nurses

NHC Nurses TeamPN

This month, I want to nominate the often unsung heroes of the Neighborhood Clinics - our amazing NURSES! I don't think a lot of people across the system understand how many hats our Neighborhood Clinic nurses have to put on every day. NHC nurses are clinical team leaders within their individual clinics. They are the first point of contact for parents/caregivers when they are worried about their child's physical or mental health. They take care of our clinical work areas, make sure our clinic labs & vaccine fridges are working as they should, and champion safe clinical practices for EVERYONE in the clinic. During the pandemic, our NHC nurses have had to shift, sometimes daily or weekly, as our safety protocols and procedures have changed. Right now, for example, NHC clinic nurses are managing triage calls AND scheduling all NHC patient sick visit needs. They're seriously amazing with how much they juggle on a daily basis!

The NHC nurses deserve an extra special shout out right now for how they leapt into action the week of February 15 to take care of our clinics. On Tuesday, February 16, several of the Neighborhood Clinics lost power and vaccine fridge temperatures rose. A team of NHC NURSES got in their cars, in the terrible weather and practically sub-zero temperatures, to drive to multiple clinics, save our vaccine supplies, and transport them to clinics that did have power. They also spent our clinic closure days working remotely, logged into our clinic nurse triage pools, responding to parent calls and making sure that the parents and kids we care for in the NHCs could get ahold of someone from their pediatrician's office if their child got sick. This team's most awesome super power last week was covering for each other! At various times throughout the week, many of our nurses lost power, internet access, and water, but they jumped in to help cover each other’s calls, clinics, and patients. They made it work when things seemed kind of impossible. I feel very blessed and very lucky to work with this remarkable group of Peak Performer NURSES!