Nurse finds his niche running the MICU
Grandview Medical Center

Profile: Mike Morris, Charge Nurse, MICU unit
By KEN MOSIER
For Health Care Today

After graduating from the Miami Valley Hospital School of Nursing, Mike Morris spent 16 years working in an emergency room.

He is currently a charge nurse for the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Grandview Medical Center.

He says his current position is much more rewarding than an ER. "In an ER, you get them stabilized. You work with them for a few minutes and they go off to another unit and you never see or hear what happened to them.

"Here (MICU) you see the patients day in and day out. You see them progress from a very sick individual, come back a little each day until they are well and leave the hospital," he continued. "I have seen people come in here that were at death's door and a week later, they were walking out of the hospital. You can see the progress you make."

As charge nurse, Morris is responsible for the daily operation of the unit. His duties in part include ensuring adequate staffing; making sure nurses are keeping up with their patient load; checking on any potential safety issues; helping nurses trouble-shoot problems; and assigning responders to "code" calls.

	Mike Morris and RN Jennifer Thomas go over a patient's chart.

"Every hospital has a 'code (blue) team,'" he explained. "The MICU staff is in charge of all the codes that happen here in the hospital. I make sure that the code team has a responsible nurse that is capable of going on a code blue." Sometimes Morris is one of the nurses that responds. "I like to be on the code team. I like the little bit of adrenaline that I get from running the codes," he said.

Morris is often accompanied by a student nurse. "I tell the student nurses, 'If you are with me and we have a code, you are going and you have to keep up.' They sometimes have a hard time," he said with a laugh. "I am 53 and they are 21 to 22 and I do three or four steps at a time carrying a 30-pound defibrillator. They have to run."

Morris admits to loving his job. "I get up every morning with a good attitude," he said.

His skills, knowledge and enthusiasm led to his being awarded the 2007 Cameo of Caring award for Grandview Hospital — something that he wasn't expecting.

"I was so taken aback. I was very proud to win that," he said.