Karen Hughes

I had a patient who was morbidly obese, intubated, and sedated. I was performing wound care to her buttocks. Karen volunteered to help roll this patient. (>400lbs), assist me with the dressing change that took >45 minutes, and then performed, very gently and delicately, her personal hygiene. All the while she spoke to and comforted the sedated patient as if she were fully awake. She was so loving and tender and spent a great deal of precious time caring for this patient who was, most likely, completely unaware of Karen’s loving demeanor and, by the way, did I mention that this was not her patient. Karen observed, as did I, that the patient's nurse was overwhelmed with another situation. Karen volunteered to assist me and then comfort and clean a very difficult patient to move, even by ICU standards. Karen is the kind of nurse shows you that this is not a job, it’s a calling. She is the very spirit of CHRISTUS core values.

Nominated by: Pamela O’mara