I first met Christina when I was a nursing student. She was always a warm friendly face, willing to go out of her way to help the student nurses. I chose her as the nurse I was to shadow and quickly became aware that in addition to being kind, she was also an exemplary nurse in practice. Her assessments thorough, meds on time, appropriate data always communicated to the physician. She was the type of nurse that I would want to care for my loved ones. As a student nurse, I knew that she was the type of nurse I wanted to be someday: altruistic, compassionate, and kind.
Fast forward several years and I would find myself as an IV nurse at Baystate Medical Center. Being an IV nurse gives me the unique opportunity to work with almost all the nurses here in the hospital, Christina being one of them. I see her in the discharge unit providing patients with all the information they will need to go home and continue their care. Other times I see her in Oncology bringing a smile to the faces of terminally ill patients. She has the gift of making people feel important. She is a role model for what it takes to be compassionate.
Last week I ran into her in the Emergency Department. Per usual I stopped to say hello when I noticed her holding on the phone for quite a while. I sat down next to her to chart. She gave me a smile and after hanging up the phone informed me why she was on hold for so long. Her patient's husband had been in the hospital and now she was to be admitted too. She was concerned for their dog that had been left alone in the house for almost 24 hours. She was making arrangements to get a family member to the home to care for the dog while its owners were admitted to the hospital.
I could tell that her concern for the pup was just as great as that of her patient. By making those arrangements her patient could focus her attention on her health. Christina was able to contact a family member and take care of the beloved pet. This gave peace of mind to the patient as well as Christina. Now the patient would not have added suffering as she concentrated on her health as well as her husband's.