As a representative of one of the home health and hospice agencies who has the opportunity to interact with Providence nursing team members almost daily, I am thankful to see kind interactions between staff and patients frequently.
Last weekend, I witnessed Adam go above and beyond in a way that brought a patient to grateful tears. To avoid sharing details which would violate HIPAA, I'll just say that the patient was a stereotypical strong willed, opinionated, "tough guy", veteran who fought for our freedom. I also had the privilege of getting to know him as a humble, Godly man who confessed that he had a major fear of doctors and hospitals. Long story short, there were a couple of potential obstacles which could have stood in the way of this patient's coveted timely discharge. Because of the efforts of the RN case manager, home health was able to address one of those needs. The other obstacle was getting the patient up 5 steps to get into his home. On one of my visits, the patient shared with me that Adam offered to help him get up those steps. The following day everything had been worked out for discharge, so Adam and I went into the patient's room together to share the much-anticipated news that he could go home. During that time, I observed Adam compassionately offer to go help the patient into his home if he could wait until shift change. Through big tears of gratitude, the patient assured Adam that he had progressed enough with therapy and that he was capable. Adam excused himself to work on the discharge while I said, "see you later" to the patient. The patient expressed his thankfulness again and told me what a special guy Adam is.
Adam's kindness blessed this patient and me that day. I can't imagine how many more good turns he does that do not even get recognized. These are the outcomes that we all choose the healthcare field to get to be a part of. Adam has always proven to be a professional, compassionate, and helpful nurse when I've interacted with him, but being witness to this case (which he had no intention of anyone seeing) gave me a heightened level of respect for him. I hope Providence will choose to honor Adam as an extraordinary nurse!