Carolyn Orcutt

Carol has been a nurse for many years and draws in her nursing practice from her professional experience and personal maturity. With those special skills she is extremely gifted for taking care of the "grower and feeder babies" in the ICN, babies who are not specifically sick but need to outgrow their prematurity and the associated sequelae. She is especially comforting to the parents of these babies because she takes time to build a trusting relationship recognizing the individual needs these families have. She is genuinely bringing her whole person in to get to know these families and leran how to best help them to learn to confidently take care of their baby and facing the future with a premature child. She takes time to listen to them, reassure them, teach them skills like giving meds, connecting them with community resources and being what is generally understood as being a patient advocate. One dad of twins once told me that Carol is one of the few nurses where he and his wife didn't feel "guilty" for going home to take care of themselves and leaving their babies in someone else's care.

As Carol says: "One of the things I treasure most when reflecting on my career of 47 years is when parents give me a hug and thank me for taking such good care of them and their baby"!