This month’s First Watch First Responder — presented by First Watch, The Daytime Cafe at East 54 — is Loc Culp!
When Culp, nurse manager of the Medical Intensive Care Unit, saw her first COVID-19 patients, she implemented clinical changes while keeping up with the unrelenting stream of patients admitted into the MICU. Throughout the pandemic, her department has cared for the sickest COVID-19 patients while ensuring the unit was staffed properly and safely.
To incorporate these measures, Culp helped change the MICU department into high-risk and low-risk zones. As a wife and mother of three children, Loc spent long hours at the MICU overseeing the health and well-being of critically ill patients, as well as her 110-member staff.
Her heroism, compassion, effective communication, and skill has made an immense impact on her co-workers and colleagues at the UNC Medical Center.
Loc Culp, BSN, RN, CCRN, MICU nurse manager at UNC Health’s Medical Intensive Care Unit in Chapel Hill, NC is a deserving nominee to be recognized as a First Watch First Responder.
Culp was promoted to MICU nurse manager in January 2020 right before the pandemic began. Once the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) saw its first case, Culp immediately put a plan in place to transform UNC’s MICU to treat COVID-19 patients. She implemented clinical changes while keeping up with the unrelenting stream of patients admitted into the MICU.
Throughout the pandemic, her department has cared for the sickest COVID-19 patients which include those on ventilators, vasopressors, paralytics and sedations. Culp led a number of initiatives that involved achieving best practice, organizational objectives, and high-level critical supportive care. Effective communication was top priority to ensure that the unit was staffed properly and safely.
To incorporate these safety measures, Culp helped change the MICU department into high-risk and low-risk zones. In the high-risk area, nurses don gowns, gloves, N-95 masks, and face shields or CAPR’s (a Controlled Air Purifying Respirator used to protect against airborne particulates). The low-risk area was where staff supported the high-risk nurses by gathering supplies and medications.
Culp also helped create a staffing model where PPE monitors were made available to make sure staff were donning and doffing appropriately. As a wife and mother of three children, Loc spent long hours at the MICU in making sure the health and well-being of critically-ill patients were taken care of, as well as her 110-member staff.
Collegiality and selfless teamwork through Culp’s leadership helped the MICU staff to continue to be one great team. Her heroism, compassion, effective communication and skill has made an immense impact on her co-workers and colleagues at the UNC Medical Center. Culp was also the first frontline healthcare worker at UNC Medical Center to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, leading the way for her colleagues to follow in her footsteps.
Biography:
Loc Culp was born in Vietnam, raised in Louisiana and now resides in Chapel Hill with her husband and three children. She received her BSN in 1999 at University Louisiana Monroe. She also worked on the telemetry unit in New Orleans, LA. Culp was on the staffing response team at Rex for ICU and ED. Since 2001, her roles at UNC Hospitals MICU included: staff nurse, nurse educator clinician, and CN IV. She became MICU interim nurse manager in November of 2019 at the UNC Medical Center, and was promoted as nurse manager in January 2020.
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