Making a Difference at Work: Pauline Stroud

Patient care can be a tough job, especially when patients refuse medication, unhook an IV or remove a cardiac monitor. When Sevda Mirza, clinical team lead at Duke Regional Hospital, had this type of encounter with a patient who would not follow instructions, she turned to Pauline Stroud for help. "I don't know what she does. She will go in, talk with the patient for about 15 minutes, and then come out and say, 'Okay, you can hook up the IV now. He's going to take all his medications,' and everything is fine," Mirza said. To recognize Stroud's resourcefulness, problem-solving skills and ability to communicate effectively, Mirza posted a compliment about Stroud on Duke's "Making a Difference" blog. The blog invites Duke staff or faculty members to post a note about colleagues who have gone above and beyond the expectations of his or her job. "Pauline Stroud displays all the qualities of a Duke nurse who also lives DUHS values of excellence, safety, integrity, diversity and teamwork every day," Mirza wrote on the blog on May 7. "As Operation Administrator she is extremely resourceful and she has a unique way of taking complex operational problems and focusing with laser-like sharpness to the core of it and offering a solution which is always right on the dot!" Stroud, who has worked at DRH for 26 years, met Mirza when she began working at the hospital 9 years ago. At that time, Stroud functioned as a charge nurse. Mirza said Stroud played a key role in mentoring her along with other charge nurses. Even though Stroud now oversees the nurses, the pair still work closely. When Stroud found out about the recognition from her colleague, she said she was going to blush because of the public praise.   "If you go home and know you did the right thing, and everything is good, that's what counts whether you're recognized or not recognized," Stroud said.