I have been a patient of Dr. L of the Christ Hospital Cancer Center due to Stage IV Melanoma that has metastasized to my lungs, bowel, and brain. During my sixteen years battling "this monster", I have encountered many wonderful and caring people in the medical profession, especially nurses. One of the "best of the best" is a nurse who helped with my care on 6 South at Christ Hospital during my most recent hospitalization, Nurse Christy Ott.
From a patient's perspective, Christy possesses all of the qualities that a nurse should have in order to achieve success during his or her career. At such a young age, Christy is wise beyond her years! She is compassionate and caring about her patients as well as their families during very stressful situations. An example of this is on February 17 during my stay on 6S, I started having seizures every five minutes. Christy immediately handled the situation very calmly with compassion for both my wife and me during a very frightful time for us. Not only did she ease our fears, she acted quickly and wisely during a very tense medical emergency to get the needed doctors in my room to attend to my needs.
Before my illness left me paralyzed on my right side and confined to a wheelchair, I was very active in the community and always "large and in charge"! Being dependent on someone else to meet my every need is very difficult. Christy, however, treated me with dignity and respect in the most humbling of situations. Such a compassionate and caring nurse!
Nurses should possess the quality of openness to learning something new each day. Christy has this quality. When my nephrologist would make his daily visit, Christy mentioned how she learned so much from him during those visits. Often times when a PCA would come and help her move me, re-position me, etc., she would always ask their opinion. Christy never displayed an attitude that she "wrote the book". Instead her attitude could be likened to that of an author whose last chapter of a book will never be written because there is so much more to add. Her eagerness to learn from those around her is so evident with a never ending desire to gain knowledge about the medical field she loves so much.
A quote I read somewhere said "Nurses dispense comfort, compassion and caring without a prescription". Christy does all that and more! She indeed provides holistic care in a very competent and ethical way.
Nurses like Christy that make the patient experience and The Christ Hospital the "best of the best"! We love Christ Hospital! It is often said that God puts people in our lives when we need them the most. God indeed put Christy in our lives just when we needed her the most.