Patient Care Coordinators like Kathleen Olekshy focus on ensuring that patients, at times the sickest of the sick, get the right care, the right bed, and all at the right time.
Kathleen Olekshy is a Patient Care Coordinator at Royal Columbian Hospital. Everything she does is centered on providing the best care to patients.
Patient care coordinator, charge nurse, assistant head nurse - the titles have changed over the years, but this unique nursing role focuses on ensuring that patients, at times the sickest of the sick, get the right care, the right bed, and all at the right time.
Kathleen Olekshy is a patient care coordinator in the Intensive Care Unit at Royal Columbian Hospital. Everything she does is centred on patients, including partnering with other hospitals in the region to access beds, liaising with families, and ensuring patients receive the best care possible every step of the way. After that, comes caring for her colleagues.
She readily admits that everyone in the health care system is missing the typical way in which they normally perform as a team.
“How we connect and communicate with one another sometimes feels forever changed,” says Kathleen. “Beneath the masks and the face shields we can still can read each other, we care about each other a lot. We look into each other's eyes deeply, and they tell the story.”
When Kathleen graduated from nursing school 29 years ago, jobs were scarce. She worked in a variety of clinical areas, including orthopedics and neurology, and aspired to be a critical care nurse.
“I wanted that so badly,” says Kathleen. “I admired those nurses so much and perhaps even more now than ever before. I too, want to make a difference in the lives of those who were so sick.”
Kathleen says her profession is incredibly rewarding. “I have felt so much reward from my profession, and I am very proud of the vital and unique contribution nurses have in health care and more importantly in people’s lives.”
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