The ACU is often overlooked because of our small size but this is a team that absolutely shines by going above and beyond for our patients. I wanted to share one specific story of our entire team from nurses, techs, case management and nurse practitioner beautifully caring for a patient.

We had a very young man admitted to our unit with a terminal cancer diagnosis. He had been treated on our unit before and was happy to becoming back to us for care again. We, unfortunately, found out that he would not be making it this time around. Our team tried relentlessly to get him discharged on hospice, however, due to insurance, financial, and family issues we were not able to make this happen. Instead, our team banded together to keep him with us on our unit for his last days. The team did everything possible to keep him laughing as much as possible and as pain-free as we could. He was always telling us how grateful he was to have us with him and caring for him. The young man eventually passed away on our unit and our team did everything possible to help the few friends and family he had to grieve and find comfort where they could. The ACU team also made sure we were all there for each other too.

It’s always difficult to lose a patient but to lose a patient in his 30s is a completely different experience. The patient’s friends and family reached out to us a few days later to thank us for the care the team proved and even made sure we were aware of when his memorial was because they knew how we had all bonded to him. The ACU team is absolutely an incredible team to be a part of every day and even more so when we are given the opportunity to go above and beyond for someone. I want to make sure everyone is aware of this incredible team that’s tucked away in the corner of the hospital where many don’t even know where to find us.