Having Abigail Siegenthaler as my preceptor, I saw how much dedication she has to do her job. Abby taught me how to be incredibly kind, but assertive, how to be proactive and observant for any issues that may come up, and showed me an example of how to truly devote oneself to providing patient and family-centered care.
Now that I am working independently and take over patients from Abby, I see the extent of her hard work even more. I have observed her stay overtime and help the oncoming nurses more times than I can count.
Abby has incredibly difficult and stressful shifts that she overcomes regardless of how tired and drained she may feel. She truly went far beyond the call of duty to help me with my own busy patient assignments. She had such a busy shift that at the change of shift she had yet to start charting for both her patients. However, Abigail stayed three hours overtime to take my aggressive and combative psych patient to the psych floor while I cared for my other sick patients. I insisted that she go home, but she stayed and helped nonetheless.
This is one of the many times she has done something like this for me and her team, but I wanted to acknowledge how much effort she puts in to provide the best patient care. I think Marymount is very lucky to have Abby as part of the team, and I feel privileged to have her as a preceptor and gain such a great foundation to my own practice as a critical care nurse thanks to her instruction and example.