Chris Roelke was my mom's nurse on 5N during the most emotionally difficult life event I've personally ever dealt with. He was her primary nurse when she arrived during a good old-fashioned Wisconsin blizzard. Chris received us with a warm smile, listened to our concerns, addressed all of our questions in a timely manner, was never too busy to help, and assisted us in coordinating her care. Chris is clearly compassionate and highly professional about what he does.
I think that Chris put in 60+ hours the week that we were in the hospital and his attitude and caring compassion never wavered. He stayed 4 hours past his shift (thereby working a 16-hour night shift) when staff affected by the blizzard couldn't make it to work and still came back less than 8 hours later to pull another 12-hour night shift! He always had a smile on his face. He took the time to listen to our stories and to get to know us. He initiated some very difficult conversations that we never thought we would have to deal with (such as palliative care secondary to the new diagnosis of metastatic brain cancer that we had received).
When Chris learned that Mom was a veteran, he made suggestions for ways to gain support through the VA as well. He truly went above and beyond whenever he could; not because he had to, but because he wanted to.