Back in the 1990s, as a bed-side nurse in the Shock-Trauma ICU, Polly did something for the first time ever – she followed a patient’s recovery past the doors of the ICU. Through this experience, she learned about the devastating and long-lasting complications that accompany survivors of critical illness. She began to comprehend that therapies that improve quality-of-life are as valuable as therapies that decrease mortality.
 

From that time forward, she has been an advocate for improving the functional status and long-term outcomes of ICU survivors. She is passionate about modifying “traditional” ICU care to include light sedation, delirium prevention, early mobility, and families. She has been a speaker on the topic of early mobility in the ICU for the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American Thoracic Society, and the Institute for Health Care Improvement.
 

Polly, an acute-care nurse practitioner in the MISU at LDS Hospital, is inspired daily by her clinical team who day after day place the patient in the center of care.