Maleah Burch, registered nurse in the intensive care unit (ICU), was honored as the newest recipient of McLaren Greater Lansing’s Extraordinary Employee of the Season Award. This award acknowledges any employee in the hospital system for the extraordinary work they do.
Burch’s nomination stated, “Maleah is an advocate for patients, is a clinical expert in ICU, and is working to raise the bar in the ICU by leading the unit-based counsel. This past month, Maleah was the primary nurse for a critically ill patient who was actively hemorrhaging and requiring extensive critical care interventions, medications, and continuous blood transfusions. She led the ICU nursing staff in guiding them to assist her to have all hands-on deck with calmness and confidence. Maleah also advocated for the patient in recommending a CT scan despite the risk to the patient; she felt it was necessary to obtain information and hopefully diagnose the cause of the hemorrhage. Ultimately, the CT was completed and identified the cause of the bleeding, which was without a doubt a unique situation and one that would have not been discovered, nor would the bleeding have stopped without the CT scan.”
The nominator went on to say, “Because of her desire to advocate for this patient and her clinical expertise, Maleah saved this patient’s life, and he has been transferred out of the ICU, will soon go to rehab, and will celebrate another holiday with his family. Thank you, Maleah, for being you, for advocating for this patient and all patients, and for delivering the extraordinary.”
Burch has worked at McLaren for nearly five years. After seeing a close family member sick, she decided she wanted to go into the medical field and potentially go into hospice care. While finishing her nursing degree and completing a rotation in the ICU, she found a love for critical care.
“Patient advocacy is very important to me; while my patients are often in a critical and vulnerable condition, I can help be the voice for them and advocate for the care they need and it’s something I really strive to provide for each of my patients,” said Burch.
The Extraordinary Employee of the Season award is given out to an individual each quarter. Nominees can be clinical or nonclinical staff at all levels and are chosen internally by McLaren staff.