I'm an employee here and also a senior nursing student and had the privilege to be precepted by Chelsea for my capstone course to transition to independent practice. Throughout my time in nursing school, I've had many preceptors teach me the science of nursing but my nominee was the first I've had that taught me about the art of nursing.

I remember a specific patient encounter that stood out to me when I realized that she was going above and beyond to provide compassionate caregiving. A patient that had severe anxiety that was exacerbated by his hospital admission had been pressing his call light every few minutes for seemingly random requests. The patient was very apologetic every time he pressed the button because he knew the floor was busy, but Chelsea was patient and answered every question he had. After a while, she asked if there was any other reason he was continuously pressing his call light. She had established a rapport with the patient and he felt comfortable enough to open up to her about his severe anxiety and how he was fearful that if he was left alone too long, he would have a serious adverse effect and something bad would happen to him. She spent an entire hour with him listening to his story and since she had experience in her own personal life with a family member that had severe anxiety, she was able to help him come up with strategies to cope with his hospitalization and new diagnoses. By the time she was done speaking with him, he had a completely different outlook and was no longer fearful to be alone. I've made it a point to implement these strategies in my own future nursing practice and hope to have that same impact on a patient's mental health.

In addition to her own nursing practice excellence, she is also a unit leader both formally as a charge nurse and informally as a mentor to nursing students and newly licensed nurses. She was the "go-to" person every nurse on the unit came to with questions or to ask advice even when she wasn't the charge nurse. She was as kind and understanding with students and new nurses as she was with her patients and made me change my future plans for nursing to hopefully join her unit one day. Chelsea's characteristics are fully aligned with The DAISY Award criteria and I can't think of anyone more deserving to be recognized for their service to our patients. Parkland is lucky to have her!