Intermountain in Nevada uses an innovative approach to help address patient questions and concerns, and patients appreciate the individualized service. When a patient calls the Intermountain Nevada patient service center with a question and the patient uses a clinic that doesn’t have an LPN on-site, acute issues are referred to the Blue Sheet Central Nursing Team. The Blue Sheet team is comprised of LPNs and medical assistants who work with primary care providers to address patients’ concerns, questions, and help patients over the telephone in a timely manner.
Jaxx Cardenas
Blue Sheet caregivers talk to patients and learn their symptoms, then send this information to the patient’s provider. They’ll also relay any information from the provider back to the patient.
Jaxx Cardenas is a medical assistant on the Blue Sheets team. A patient recently expressed how grateful she was to have Jaxx on her side and said Jaxx is “professional, intelligent, an excellent listener, and has a very comforting disposition.” The patient says she enjoys speaking with Jaxx every time she calls.
Jaxx says she approaches each patient call as an opportunity to connect with another human being. She says many patients who use the Blue Sheet process have complicated health issues that go beyond physical problems.
“Sometimes there are other complex personal and social issues that have to be taken into consideration,” says Jaxx. “Often, the patients call with difficult issues that can’t easily be addressed or ‘fixed.’”
Jaxx says her goal is to listen to her patients, allow them to speak, and to help them feel they’re heard. She lets her patients tell their story to her and validates their experiences. She responds to them with acceptance. By listening deeply to what they’re saying and responding in a supportive manner, she feels like she makes a difference in her patients’ lives.
Jaxx and the Blue Sheets team have played an important role throughout the pandemic. Patients dealing with a variety of illnesses, including COVID 19, can feel isolated. The Blue Sheet team follows up with COVID-19 and COPD patients several times throughout the duration of their illness. This provides the caregivers with the opportunity to get to know patients they speak to frequently.
Jaxx says, “Our patients have a lot to say and not many people to talk to. I feel that being a good listener is part of my job. I love following up with my patients to make certain they’re cared for and they’ve received the care they require.”
Jaxx says she loves working on the Blue Sheet team and speaks highly of her fellow caregivers and the Blue Sheet leadership who’ve cultivated a supportive group of caregivers. In honoring each other, they’re also able to honor their patients with the same level of loving kindness and empathy.