I was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot wound. After my stay in the ICU, I was transferred to the Orthopedics floor. The first time that Aubrey was my nurse was the second day I was in the Ortho unit. She came in with a smile on her face and was the most upbeat and cheerful nurse I had ever met. She was doing her normal assessments but at the same time she was getting to know me and my family. The first day Aubrey was my nurse it made it really easy to stay positive with everything I had going on. The next morning before day shift started I asked my nurse if I would be able to have Aubrey as my day time nurse again because I really liked how cheerful she made everything and how much she truly cared about me and my family. The night time nurse had told me that I would most likely not get Aubrey as a nurse because she was charge nurse that day and charge nurses do not take on any patients. However, the night time nurse had asked Aubrey if she would be my nurse even though she was charge nurse and Aubrey said that she would take me as a patient while being the charge nurse. Aubrey then took me as a patient on any day that she worked because it made me feel more comfortable having her as a nurse and it also made my family more comfortable because they knew how good of a nurse she was and my family was not always able to be at the hospital with me.

Aubrey then, over the course of my stay, was my advocator. She was not afraid to call the doctor if I was in too much pain or towards the end of my stay when my nerve pain was getting too much for me to handle. Aubrey was in my room when I had my first wound vac taken off, standing by my side when my girlfriend had to step out of the room. Aubrey saw how much pain I was in during my first wound vac taken off, so during my multiple other wound vac removals, Aubrey was calling the doctor to get me some extra pain medicine to make sure the pain wasn't too unbearable. Aubrey was then in the room with me during the remainder of my wound vac removals. During my entire stay, I would have meetings with my trauma surgery team every day. Aubrey made sure that she would be in the room any time that the trauma team would come so she could stay up on the treatment that I am going to be having in the future and how the healing is going, but also so she could answer the many questions that myself or my family would have after all the doctors left. Not only would Aubrey answer questions that my family and I had, but she would also ask questions to truly get to know me and my family. It was obvious that she truly cared about me and my family.

Toward the end of my stay, I was told I was going to be getting out, but the day prior, a doctor came in and told me that I would have to stay another week, which really upset me. I then called Aubrey into my room, and she calmed me down and cheered me up again. After Aubrey cheered me up, she instantly called the head doctor on the trauma team on speaker phone and asked why I would have to stay another week and what the issue was. The head doctor informed us that a doctor had misspoken and that I would not be staying another week.

Aubrey was the best nurse I could have ever asked for, and I know there is a ton of stuff that I am missing in this story that she did for me. Aubrey was definitely my advocate and my voice when it came to the doctors. Even when Aubrey was getting off work, she would always "make sure I had a good nurse." In my opinion, there is no other nurse that deserves this award more than Aubrey.