Travis Ivy, Patient Services Associate – Float Pool
Please join the Center for Nursing Excellence in congratulating Travis Ivy for being selected as the April BEE Award winners!
Travis is a Patient Services Associate on Float Pool and was nominated by a co-worker. The following is the story of how Travis impacted his co-worker’s life in a way that they will never forget.
“On December 23rd, 2018, Travis was pulled to help out on F9. We had this patient that was homeless and was on F9 because he had been hit by a car and it broke his humerus & banged him up pretty good. Later that afternoon, it became time to discharge him. Case management had done what they could to get him a week’s worth of his antibiotics and spoke with the patient who assured her he could beg/find enough money to fill the rest of the prescription. After I (RN) did his discharge teaching, he started screaming “where’s my stuff?” “I had two bags when I came in here!” “Where are my clothes?” I told him that with the kind of trauma he went through that they probably had to cut his clothes off of him when he arrived at the ED, but that I would check down in the ED for any belongings under his name. The ED had no belongings of his. Just to double check, I searched through any ED note I could find for something mentioning clothes or belongings and there was nothing. We were supposed to be discharging this homeless man into the cold with literally only a hospital gown on. Not knowing how to solve this problem, with it being right in the middle of the Christmas holiday, and resources were limited and I kept hitting brick walls with everything I could think of to try, I started to talk to my charge nurse and the case manager/social worker saying “I feel like it is unethical to discharge him into conditions like this at this time & without any clothes.” Travis immediately sprang into action with several options for where we might be able to find him some clothes. One of his ideas was a PRI closet – and case management was able to go there and get him a few things. But Travis still felt uneasy about this man’s situation. With his shift soon coming to an end, Travis started to tell me, “I don’t live far from here, let me go home and get him a few things.” People can say nice things like this all the time but without action it’s just a blank statement. Travis jumped to action and quickly went to his home and brought back several pairs of pants, several shirts, several pairs of socks, a pair of shoes, a warm winter jacket, and I believe a few toiletry items. When Travis got back to F9 and started to show the patient what he had brought him and started to help him get dressed, the utter relief was so very visible on his face. Travis Ivy literally gave a complete stranger the shirt off his back without thinking twice about it. It was the most heartwarming moment I have seen in a very long time. His kindness turned an awful, and more than likely unhealthy situation, into a situation that gave this patient a chance to succeed and heal properly from his injuries. After the patient was gone, I told Travis that I thought that what he did for that patient was so incredibly kind and so rare to see, to which Travis simply replied: “That’s just my heart, you know?” Travis Ivy is an incredible human and a wonderful employee with a huge heart for helping our patients and making a difference in their lives. He created such an atmosphere of hope and “faith in humanity restored” on F9 that day. He deserves every bit of this award and recognition, and if there was something else I could nominate him for I would do it in a heartbeat. People (and employees) like Travis don’t come around that often!!”
Way to go Travis.
Please congratulate Travis for Being Exceptional Every day at UAMS!