Sunday, January 31, 2010
Each quarter, Baptist Medical Center honors nurses for their excellence in various capacities of nursing such as leadership, bedside care and mentoring colleagues. From the recipients of the quarterly Nursing Excellence Awards last year, Keisha Chaffee, RN, was selected as Baptist's 2009 Nurse of the Year. She is a Clinton, Miss. resident and works in Baptist's Adult Intensive Care Unit.
Chaffee grew up in Jackson and attended Provine High School and attended Alcorn State. She received her BS from the University of Mississippi School of Nursing.
"I came to work at Baptist because she wanted to be in a family oriented hospital and part of a team," Chaffee added. "The thing that is most important to me are patients and their family."
She has worked for Baptist a total of nine years, and for the
last two and half years, she has worked in the AICU where she is a
team leader. She is ACLS and BLS certified and on the Rapid
Response team. Presently, Chaffee is pursuing national critical
care certification.
Some of the things her co-workers said about her:
"Keisha is a nurse everyone should strive to imitate. Her
leadership as a charge nurse is phenomenal and other nurses on the
unit know Keisha is the one to see for advice on what to do when
faced with difficult situations," said one of her co-workers.
"She is a terrific role model and an excellent resource for all
staff," added another co-worker. "She is an open book of knowledge
and experience and for those few times when she doesn't have the
answer, she knows how to problem solve and find the
solution."
Dr. Maria Rappai said, "She is a friendly, caring and
compassionate nurse. She has excellent clinical thinking skills and
uses them to teach new staff how to care for the critically ill
patients daily. She continues to monitor the new nurses and offer
assistance as needed. If we communicate concerns, she will follow
up and address them. If called, she will go anywhere in the
hospital to assess patients for physicians and provide accurate
assessments. She is well respected by the physicians and her peers.
Keisha shows initiative, motivation and is extremely dedicated to
her patients and is a role model for all around her."
