caitlin mcdermott, RN, BSN

Our daughter was life flighted at birth and spent many months at Children's in the NICU and then the 4th floor in respiratory distress and with many health issues and surgeries to follow. We live 5 hours away so we stayed there the whole time with her and became familiar with the whole nursing staff. Caitlin always went above and beyond to make sure E was taken care of. She felt like family to us. She would always be willing to do E's baths in the evening since they often didn't get done during the day. She even found a mobile and brought it in to occupy her time in the crib. She was one of the few nurses with whom I felt comfortable going back to the Rainbow House in the evenings and leaving my baby. I knew that if my daughter was upset or fussy, she would be in there right away to calm her down or to rock her. If we did not make it back in the morning before she went off shift, she would leave positive little notes to us from E, for example, it would say, "I rocked and drank half of a bottle last night Mom and Dad, keep up the great work!" These little notes went such a long way for us on days when we felt there was little hope, it always reminded us that there was some positive progress each day! We have dealt with tons of nurses at Children's and she easily stood out as the very best!