Medical Intensive Care Unit Huddle

Dear Colleagues,

I made huddle rounds on the Medical Intensive Care Unit recently with Shanon Fucik, chief nursing officer. The last time I made rounds on the MICU was during the peak of COVID-19, so it was very nice to return and see the unit(s) running during “normal” times.

But of course, pandemic or not, it is always very, very busy in the MICU, and the day we rounded was no exception with essentially all beds full. One constant from my last visit is nurse manager Sandy Harryman, who has been with MU Health Care for more than 30 years. Sandy introduced me to the team and gave me a tour after the huddle.

I refer to MICU as “units” because it is split over the fifth and third floors of University Hospital, with 18 beds on each floor. The nurses, doctors and other team members get their cardiovascular exercise in going between the floors throughout the day, and I sure did, too. We started on the fifth floor and the huddle incorporated both floors, with the third-floor team on video.

TJ Headley, service line clinical supervisor, leads huddle as Sandy Harryman, nurse manager, looks on during the MICU huddle on the fifth floor. The MICU team on the third floor joined huddle remotely.

After the huddle and my tour of the fifth-floor unit, we walked down the two flights of stairs to the third floor to continue the tour. The huddle was led by pulmonary physician fellow Dr. Tochukwu Njepuome. The two MICU attending doctors were there as well, Dr. Shyam Shankar on five and Dr. Jonathan Collins, who serves as MICU medical director, on three. Two nursing supervisors were involved in leading the huddle, TJ Headley and Heidi Baybrook.

I am seen here with Dr. Tochukwu Njepuome and Dr. Shyam Shankar.

The leaders did a rundown on bed status, made other important announcements such as a new product the teams were to get trained on that day and an upcoming ice cream social!

I got to meet students and trainees as well. Linda Lair is a respiratory therapist instructor in the MU College of Health Sciences and she had four Mizzou respiratory therapy students with her. I learned the RT students go to college for four years and the first two years are in-the-classroom training and the last two years are practical training, mostly in our ICUs and Emergency Departments. I also got to meet internal medicine resident Dr. Matthew Stein and pulmonary ICU fellow Dr. Christina Fanous.

I very much appreciated the tour of the Medical Intensive Care Unit. Joining me in this photo is TJ Headley, Shanon Fucik, Heidi Baybrook and Sandy Harryman.

Dr. Stein went to medical school in North Carolina and Dr. Fanous went to medical school in New Jersey. Both are now at MU for the next phase of their training. Dr. Stein commented to me on how well trained our medical students are, and I was so pleased to hear that.

So, it was a very exciting and busy 30 minutes I spent with the MICU team. I got to reconnect with some MU Health Care veterans like Sandy and meet a number of new faces for me. I told them all how proud we are of the crucial work they do in the MICU to save and improve lives, which at the end of the day is our mission.

Sincerely,