While working in triage a stroke alert was called on a patient in the critical care rooms. After Andrea had taken another patient back to her room she noticed that the stroke-alert patient had a young son in the room with him. She was able to see that the patient's son was obviously overwhelmed by everyone coming into the room to take care of his father was making him nervous. Andrea took the initiative and asked him if he wanted to go get a snack.

Andrea took the son, got him snacks, and kept him occupied while his dad was getting tests and scans. After talking to the son and learning about him, she learned that he loved basketball. Andrea took the son to the ambulance bay and let him play basketball with the hoop that was set up. She learned that he wanted to learn how to shoot better and took the time to teach him how to shoot straight. Andrea and the son played basketball until the hustle of taking care of his dad had calmed down.

Not only did she show true compassion for the son in this moment but she helped ease the son's nerves with what was occurring with his father at the time. This showed true compassion and dedication to the community that we take care of outside of just patient care, but caring for the family and children of our patients.

***This is Andrea's 2nd DAISY Award!