Charis went above and beyond for her patient. She continues to have a huge capacity to offer incredible and compassionate care to her patients despite the personal struggles that are taking place in her own life. Her efforts have always been noticed by me as a new graduate nurse, but they were very evident on this day.

Charis's patient came to our treatment room for blood transfusions, and she noticed a significant decline in her patient's well-being. Previous efforts had been made to communicate with the patient's primary team in regards to discussing hospice care, seeing as the patient's health has been declining for a while now. Steps were not being taken in the right direction, so Charis took the situation into her own hands. Charis has previously been employed as a hospice nurse and has extensive knowledge and experience in terms of end of life and palliative care. Charis knew and followed her instinct that it was time to have this conversation with her patient's family member. Charis graciously and compassionately handled the situation, presented the facts, and offered clarity during a very emotional time. She set her patient and his family member up with the resources necessary to make this process possible and educated the family on how to utilize the medications they were being sent home with.

This specific patient has been coming to the clinic for quite some time to get supportive transfusions for his disease process, and he has come to mean a lot to the staff. Being able to see him and his wife go home in peace instead of potentially losing the opportunity to say goodbye to each other in a chaotic emergency room is something very special to the nurses and staff at the clinic as well. Charis has inspired me as a new graduate nurse to explore future career and education opportunities for hospice and palliative care, and this will always be a defining experience for me as a nurse.