Bianca Quartaro
February 2020
Bianca
Quartaro
,
RN
Medical/Surgical
Finger Lakes Health
Geneva
,
NY
United States
With great pleasure and pride, we nominate Bianca Quartaro for the DAISY Award, established in 1999 to recognize a nurse known for providing compassionate care to patients and their families. Bianca, a native of the Geneva community, was born at GGH and spent her entire 30-year nursing career at the hospital, the majority of the time on 3North. We have had the opportunity to interact with Bianca on multiple occasions over the years and she regularly cares for our patients in the hospital.
Bianca embodies the model of GGH which is “my community, my choice”. She is fully dedicated to the community and the people who live here. It is not uncommon to have patients who are visiting our cardiology office comment on the extraordinary care they received from Bianca. They ascribe many qualities to her such as caring, patient, warm, gentle, kind, thoughtful, funny, and hard-working. Her work ethic goes above and beyond the call of duty. She is greatly admired for her dedication to her patients and her outstanding personal qualities.
We could cite many examples that demonstrate Bianca’s exceptional qualities as a nurse and patient advocate but a recent experience with a patient and his family during a critical life event most appropriately underscores her compassion and dedication. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of our patients was admitted to the ICU. He was critically ill so his family members, from around the country, were summoned to the bedside. Upon their arrival, they needed to reach critical decisions about the aspects of his care for which they had little knowledge. Bianca patiently and carefully outlined the medical problems in terms that they understood so they could assist in helping him through this difficult period. Fortunately, he survived this most challenging admission and was discharged home.
Soon after returning home, however, his condition worsened and required re-admission. The family once again arrived at his bedside and the decision was reached to place him on comfort care on 3North. Bianca took charge immediately and assured his adult children, who had to return to their homes, that she would keep them updated on his status. She obtained phone numbers and consent from the family so that she could update them on a daily basis.
Bianca learned that Christmas was the family’s favorite holiday. To cheer him up she decorated his room, played his favorite Christmas music, and prayed, cried, and laughed with him. Each night she called the individual family members to update them on the course of the day and listened to their concerns and fears. After hearing that his favorite meal was spaghetti and meatballs, she prepared this dish at home on her day off and fed him at the bedside. The following day, we were making rounds on 3North and passed by the patient’s room where Bianca was holding his hands and touching his forehead while he talked about dying. It was a touching scene that exemplified her extraordinary compassion, dedication, and care. The patient died that night with Bianca by his side and she spent a considerable amount of time calling each of the family members to inform them of his passing. Family members expressed their extreme gratitude and appreciation for the care and compassion that she provided to them and their father during this difficult passage.
We could recount other stories about Bianca and her personal and caring approach to patient care and each of them would contain elements that parallel her actions described above. It is based on these incredible qualities and her daily commitment to providing personalized high-quality care with kindness for patients and their families, that we nominate Bianca for the DAISY Award for which she is most deserving.
Bianca embodies the model of GGH which is “my community, my choice”. She is fully dedicated to the community and the people who live here. It is not uncommon to have patients who are visiting our cardiology office comment on the extraordinary care they received from Bianca. They ascribe many qualities to her such as caring, patient, warm, gentle, kind, thoughtful, funny, and hard-working. Her work ethic goes above and beyond the call of duty. She is greatly admired for her dedication to her patients and her outstanding personal qualities.
We could cite many examples that demonstrate Bianca’s exceptional qualities as a nurse and patient advocate but a recent experience with a patient and his family during a critical life event most appropriately underscores her compassion and dedication. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of our patients was admitted to the ICU. He was critically ill so his family members, from around the country, were summoned to the bedside. Upon their arrival, they needed to reach critical decisions about the aspects of his care for which they had little knowledge. Bianca patiently and carefully outlined the medical problems in terms that they understood so they could assist in helping him through this difficult period. Fortunately, he survived this most challenging admission and was discharged home.
Soon after returning home, however, his condition worsened and required re-admission. The family once again arrived at his bedside and the decision was reached to place him on comfort care on 3North. Bianca took charge immediately and assured his adult children, who had to return to their homes, that she would keep them updated on his status. She obtained phone numbers and consent from the family so that she could update them on a daily basis.
Bianca learned that Christmas was the family’s favorite holiday. To cheer him up she decorated his room, played his favorite Christmas music, and prayed, cried, and laughed with him. Each night she called the individual family members to update them on the course of the day and listened to their concerns and fears. After hearing that his favorite meal was spaghetti and meatballs, she prepared this dish at home on her day off and fed him at the bedside. The following day, we were making rounds on 3North and passed by the patient’s room where Bianca was holding his hands and touching his forehead while he talked about dying. It was a touching scene that exemplified her extraordinary compassion, dedication, and care. The patient died that night with Bianca by his side and she spent a considerable amount of time calling each of the family members to inform them of his passing. Family members expressed their extreme gratitude and appreciation for the care and compassion that she provided to them and their father during this difficult passage.
We could recount other stories about Bianca and her personal and caring approach to patient care and each of them would contain elements that parallel her actions described above. It is based on these incredible qualities and her daily commitment to providing personalized high-quality care with kindness for patients and their families, that we nominate Bianca for the DAISY Award for which she is most deserving.