Everyone knows John as being such a kind and compassionate person on a regular basis. Those who know him know of him as a great guy. Whenever he goes above and beyond - which is often - we find ourselves thinking and saying things like, "John is just being John", or "There he goes being amazing again". I know that I have personally witnessed him taking measures for our patients that exemplify our ASPIRE values, especially when it comes to professionalism, integrity, respect, equity, and excellence.

The following are just a few examples of John's character traits that have helped others in our work area:

He has been working on our unit since I started and has been a friend and a mentor to me ever since. There have been times when I have gotten down on myself over my lack of experience or shortcomings in my performance, and he has always been there to help build me back up to where I need to be. He frequently gives me the confidence I need as a growing nurse by pointing out my strengths and assets. He helps me to stay focused on what I can and do bring to the table. He is an inspiration to me when it comes to many things, most notably as a leader on the unit and as someone who always treats others with the utmost respect, kindness, and professionalism.

He is known to keep a portable car battery charging system on the unit. Every now and then a patient will be discharged from OPSC, but their ride's car will not start because the battery has died. John will go out to the garage with his portable system and jump-start the car for them so that they do not need to worry about calling a roadside service.

One time he walked all the way to the outpatient pharmacy himself to pick up my patient's prescribed medications. He did this because I anticipated that the family would have difficulties getting there themselves due to various unique needs. He decided that physically bringing the prescriptions to the bedside would be the best option for this family. And he did not delegate this task to someone else, which would have been the easy thing to do -- he did it himself because he had the time and wanted to help.

He was the primary nurse of a patient in PACU recently whose surgery was canceled due to a cardiac arrhythmia after induction of anesthesia. The patient was in PACU for several hours while John coordinated care between numerous different teams. The patient remained on our unit all day and John stayed with them the entire time, ensuring that they got the attention and care that they needed. He also advocated for prompt evaluation by cardiology and made sure that the patient was not discharged until a consult had been arranged.

I recently noticed that when he was in charge one day, he had another nurse cover the charge position for him while he went out to the garage to change someone's tire. He told me that the car belonged to 2 people who would have had trouble doing it themselves as one of them was physically handicapped and the other one had just received surgery and general anesthesia. No one asked him to do it - he just took it upon himself to help some people who were having some bad luck.

All of these stories are examples of how John never takes the easy way out when a patient's needs get complicated or time-consuming. He always meets people where they are, consistently exceeding everyone's expectations and doing whatever it takes to deliver the best care possible.