My Family Medicine Service team had a patient who was quite ill-tempered and rude on the day of his discharge. He was close to being verbally abusive to staff, and although I did not personally observe all of this behavior, I saw enough to realize that I would have been very upset by it.

Addison dealt with this directly. She was professional, but firm. When the patient threatened to leave without necessary procedures or discharge counselling, she had the patient sign an Against Medical Advice (AMA) discharge document. We were eventually able to redirect the patient enough to get the necessary work done prior to his discharge, and then Addison destroyed the AMA document, since the patient was able to follow discharge advice in the end. 

Addison was polite, helpful, and professional throughout this difficult process, and managed to attend to the needs of a patient who was not in control of himself and who was, frankly, unpleasant to be around. We expect this of our staff every day, but it is a difficult task at the best of times, and I thought Addison displayed unusual patience and professionalism in providing care under particularly difficult circumstances. She provided what the patient needed, but did not allow him to demean her or to ignore the value she added to his care. This is the sort of behavior that makes one proud to be a health professional. I thank the Memorial nursing staff in general, and Addison in particular, for providing such a good example of who we aspire to be.