At the end of my visit, my nurse, Christopher Dunlap, provided me with the most thorough discharge instructions I've ever received! He could have just handed me my discharge papers and let me walk out, but he took extra time to go over each of my lab values that could affect the heart. He discussed the pathophysiology of whether an increase or decrease of certain labs can have an impact on the mechanisms that may trigger tachycardia and chest pain, which was my chief complaint.

At the end of his discharge instructions, I complimented him and commented that I didn't think patient/family teaching, such as the one he just provided, still existed. His response was something like, "I take pride in educating patients as much as possible because something as simple as providing detailed instructions can prevent a lot more diseases or issues, and we as a whole sometimes forget that."

He also made sure to have eye contact when he strongly reassured me that I should not be concerned about a possible acute heart condition like a heart attack, knowing that I verbalized the same and was scared to go home alone, thinking exactly that might happen. In that little interaction I had with him, it helped precondition my brain to relax, bring my heart rate down, decrease my anxiety, and I was able to sleep calmly that night.

I was very impressed with Christopher's bedside manner. I hope that this will inspire other nurses to utilize Christopher Dunlap as an example of what true patient advocacy feels like, coming from a nurse wearing the "other shoe."