Children's intensive care nurses serve as a beacon for families

Meredith and Landon Davis felt pure fear when they learned their 10-day-old son was suffering from critical congenital heart disease and would need surgery.

That fear was eased, however, when they met the staff of the Medical University of South Carolina’s Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, who are experts in handling this type of case. 

Meredith said the team of doctors and nurses made this process so much easier. She recalled how they were always happy to talk to her and Landon on the phone, even at 2 o’clock in the morning, to explain things or just check in to see if they needed anything. They also encouraged the couple to step in and be part of the process.

“Everyone was always so wonderful and helpful. The night before William’s surgery, they even let us give him his bath and clean him up. It was something simple that could be taken for granted, but it helped us feel some normalcy during a hectic time,” Meredith said.

The experience made such an impression on Meredith that she has started volunteering for MUSC Children's Hospital's special care nurseries. 

“The support the nurses, doctors and staff of the PCICU offer families surpassed any and all expectations I had, consistently providing the highest level of care any mother could ask for their child. It broke my heart being there and seeing some of the other patients whose parents couldn’t be there. So that’s when I saw an opportunity to help and applied to be a volunteer,” Meredith said.

Meredith isn’t the only one to notice how this unit stands out. 

The PCICU, the only one in the state, just gained another distinction in becoming the first in the region to obtain Beacon status. The Beacon Award for Excellence is given by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the largest specialty nursing organization in the world.

This is a dream come true for a core group of nurses in the unit. About a year and a half ago, a team of eight PCICU nurses started planning the next steps. They dreamed that they would become the first pediatric cardiac ICU in the region to obtain Beacon status. 

After long hours of work and planning, their efforts paid off.

Executive Nursing Director Robin Mutz, RN, recognized the nurses’ hard work. “We all know that dreams don’t come true just because we dream them. Dreams come true because people come together to work hard and make them come true.” 

The Beacon Award is based on:

• Excellent leadership structures and systems 
•  Appropriate staffing and staff engagement 
•  Effective communication 
•  Knowledge management and learning development 
•  Evidence-based practice
• Processes and outcome measurements

Mutz said the team excels in all these areas. “They embody all of those and they do that in a spirit of love and celebration of the patients they care for.” 

Eric Graham, M.D., director of the PCICU, said he’s excited about the award. “It recognizes the exceptional nurses of the PCICU whom I have the great honor and pleasure of working with. Their dedication, compassion and outstanding clinical skills culminate in our world class care and outcomes.”

MUSC’s advanced heart failure and transplant programs draw patients to the hospital from throughout South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. The PCICU is a 14-bed state-of-the-art area with physicians and staff who provide comprehensive care for complex medical and surgical patients from newborns to adults. It’s one of only a few intensive care units in the country that deals exclusively with pediatric heart care.  

Beyond that expertise, the staff’s relationships with patients really resonate with families. Graham worked closely with the Davises. He recalled the day that William was admitted to the PCICU. Graham had to tell the family that the seemingly healthy boy had heart disease and needed surgery. 

“What is wonderful about being part of MUSC’s Children’s Heart Program is, although I couldn’t promise them everything would be OK, I could promise them they would receive the absolute best care. It is truly a privilege to be part of such a great team that provides the highest level of quality and compassionate care.”

This unit also proudly houses five Daisy Award-winning nurses and 12 certified critical care registered nurses. The Children’s Heart Center recently received the highest rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database. The 3-star rating denotes the highest category of quality and was awarded to only 10 out of 117 hospitals nationally. 

Mark Scheurer, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of MUSC Children's Hospital and a cardiac intensivist, praised the work of the team at the presentation of the Beacon Award. He said the team environment makes it a special place to work.

“It’s about nursing collaboration, nursing leadership, nursing involvement and outcomes. And I think we often talk about the wonderful outcomes of the heart program, but sometimes what we don’t emphasize enough is that nursing is what drives much of that. It gives me a lot of personal pleasure to see this reflected back in this way and see you honored for something that we know you have deserved for a long time.”

The eight nurses who wrote the application included Liz Boyle, Catherine Griffin, Shaun Frame, Ann Benedict, Ashley Gardner, Cristina Rateb, Lindsay Waters and Vanessa Adams. Frame, a nurse manager, said the team took the initiative to pursue this recognition. “This team wasn’t told by anyone that they had to do this, but they came to their leadership saying that they were going to do this.” 

Benedict, who has been with the unit for almost 16 years, said with all of their history, they were ready for the challenge. She compared the nine-month application process to giving birth. “We were persistent. This process really refined our teamwork in the end because it was challenging to write and put everyone’s perspectives together. But when we did, I felt it was such a perfect reflection of who we were and how we collaborate with our team.” 

Graham said the award is not about one or two things that the unit does well. It's about its culture.

“Our team has an intense belief in our mission to improve the health and maximize the quality of life for the children of South Carolina with congenital and acquired heart disease and their families. No matter how well we are doing things, we are always striving to do it just a little better the next day and working to inspire others to do the same. This award embodies our philosophy.”

This is MUSC’s fifth Beacon Award. The Medical ICU, Neuroscience Intermediate Unit, Surgical Trauma ICU and 5East Acute Cardiovascular Unit received Silver Level Beacon Awards.