Ethel Ng, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
SECOND PLACE WINNER
I am pleased to nominate Ethel Ng, Cathlab and Electrophysiology Nurse, Cardiology at Sunnybrook for the nursing hero award. Ethel Ng is an excellent colleague who goes above and beyond her duties to ensure high quality care is delivered to all patients. She does this while maintaining a friendly, supportive and highly collegial environment – not an easy task to achieve within the stressful environs of an invasive cardiac catheterization / electrophysiology laboratory.
Over the years she has developed a solid knowledge base and skills in cardiac electrophysiology. Her selflessness is evident when one see’s her transferring this knowledge to junior nursing colleagues. Her approach is non-threatening and highly supportive. She never hesitates to stay late when our procedures run late as she is committed to improving patient care. Indeed, during the pandemic she came in on many of her days off to ensure sufficient nursing coverage was available to allow the Electrophysiology laboratory to run as she is committed to helping the physician team manage wait lists, and committed to ensuring we decreased hospital length of stay.
Ethel does not make a “special effort” to go beyond the usual requirements of her role as on a day to day basis Ethel effortlessly exceeds the requirements of her role. It is within her fabric to be an extraordinary nurse! One example of her extraordinary care that comes to mind is when Ethel improvised to provide a simple gesture which made the word of a difference to one patient. Coming to a hospital for an invasive procedure, especially for the very first time, can be a very stressful situation. Patients feel vulnerable, scared, and as they are in a different environment, they don’t know what to expect. Ethel is aware of this and always makes her best efforts to decrease the patient’s anxiety. She takes the time to explain what the EP lab environment, speaks calmly to the patient, and even makes jokes. Despite wearing a mask, one can always see Ethel’s smile. A memorable occasion which highlights Ethel’s concern for patients and her ingenuity was recently highlighted on social media (see attachment).
An elderly lady came to the Sunnybrook EP lab for an ablation procedure. She was anxious and scared. Unfortunately in these procedures nurses or other members of the ablation team cannot “hold the patients hand” – a gesture that provides comfort to patients. Ethel improvised and inflated a surgical glove with air and provided it to the patient to hold during the procedure. This gesture was the closest thing to “a hand to hold” during the procedure. This patient was so thankful for Ethel’s gesture and care during her procedure that she decided to share this experience with other patients on social media. This is only one example of her devotion to patients and her job.
Electrophysiology is a complex field that requires interdisciplinary interactions. Ethel is a highly valued member of our team who is a great team player, respectful and highly engaged. These qualities allow her to lead her nursing team and assist our physician team to achieve excellence. Ethel never rushes the physician team and will do whatever needed to support the physicians performing the procedure and nurses in the room. Her unwavering support allows our team to achieve excellent clinical outcomes.
On a day to day basis Ethel collaborates with our physician team, our industry partners, our purchasing department, our biomedical engineers amongst others to ensure our EP lab is well stocked and functions at peak performance. A few weeks ago a piece of equipment for our display screen was not working and a solution was not able to be provided by our biomedical engineers. Ethel went on her knees in a closet using the flashlight on her cell phone and an industry remote technical support individual on her speakerphone to perform troubleshooting after our biomedical engineering team left. She was able to fix our machine to allow us to push on with providing patient care. Ethel is willing to go out of her comfort zone (heck out of the usual confines of nursing) to get things done.
Our entire team is grateful to have Ethel as her perseverance allows us to go beyond our limits. Despite her excellence Ethel is humble, allowing her to engage with all members of the team. Her inviting nature creates for natural learning opportunities and opportunities for collaboration amongst members of our team. Ethel is critically important to education of nurses and physicians at Sunnybrook. She mentors nurses who are completing their training and encourages them to join the electrophysiology team. She singlehandedly has successfully recruited nurses to join our EP nursing group – this is by no means a trivial accomplishment as EP is known to be “confusing”, “complex” and require “long hours.” She is a beacon to others who want to go down this path. Current nurses affectionately refer to Ethel as their “EP mother” as she nurtures all nurses who come through the EP program. She is patient with nurses as they learn all aspects of the EP lab and takes her time to explain different aspects of the EP lab to them.
The Sunnybrook EP program was historically known for its robotics program. Ethel’s excellence at running the nursing aspects of this program was recognized when she was invited to present her experience at a 2018 International Robotics Conference in Miami, USA. Ethel also contributes to the electrophysiology knowledge acquired by cardiology residents and early training Electrophysiology fellows. She works side by side with the trainees transferring her knowledge on electrophysiology techniques.
Ethel is respectful of diversity at our workplace. She establishes personal relationships with colleagues. She is very thoughtful when discussing work related strains to ensure barriers to all team members’ participation within the EP lab is overcome. For example when she knows team members need to attend to themselves or loved ones she will go out of her way to ensure they leave on time and are able to attend to competing issues without them having fear of negative repercussions / stigma. I recently recall a nursing colleague being stressed and agitated about finishing on time to be able to pick up their child from daycare. Ethel sensed this stress, and quietly arranged to cover for this nurse herself to allow her nursing colleague to leave on time. By sacrificing herself and her time Ethel ultimately fosters a safe environment allowing for individuals of different backgrounds to enter and feel supported.
I am submitting this nomination on behalf of the Sunnybrook electrophysiology physician team. The entire Sunnybrook electrophysiology physician team is honored to work with Ethel. We are proud to have her on our team. She is always our Nursing Superhero and I do hope she is able to receive this recognition from you as well.
Nominated by Dr. Sheldon M Singh, Medical Director Electrophysiology program, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.