Danielle is truly an extraordinary nurse. She is compassionate, positive, intelligent, and professional. She is a team player, and incredible mentor and preceptor, and a persistent advocate for her patients.
I have had the pleasure of working with Danielle for about a year now. Upon working with her on a daily basis, it is obvious that she is passionate about the nursing profession. When caring for her patients she shows a tremendous amount of compassion. She connects with patients and their families on a personal level, often using humor to ease patient's nerves and build a rapport. She puts the patient's needs first and advocates for their safety. I recall a situation in which a physician was discharging a patient who was having issues with his blood pressure dropping when standing, causing him to fall. Danielle was concerned about the patient going home by himself without the issue being resolved. She took the time to express her concerns to the physician and advocated for the plan of care to be revised.
She has had a tremendous impact on my professional growth and development as a new nurse. When I first came off orientation, I was very nervous and not too confident in my nursing skills. Danielle served as a mentor and friend to me throughout my first year as a registered nurse. She was always available to answer my questions or help instruct me through any nursing skill that I was unsure about. Most importantly she was there for moral support whenever I felt overwhelmed with a stressful situation or difficult patient load. I specifically remember one day she had floated to a different unit, I had a challenging patient load and called Danielle in a panic. Although she had her own patient assignment she made time to come back to the unit to help me prioritize care and talk me through the overwhelming experience. Every day after our shift was over, she would ask if I needed help with anything before leaving. She would even stay late and help me with any uncompleted tasks. She never once made me feel inadequate or incompetent for any questions I asked. She took the time to give me advice, positive feedback, and encouraging pep talks after a rough shift. I have also witnessed her on multiple occasions giving other new graduate nurses on our unit words of encouragement she has given me over the past year. She is committed to the success of new staff on our unit and makes sure they feel like part of the team.
Danielle is a strong advocate for team work. She offers to help her coworkers daily. When she is the team leader on our unit she implements what is best for the team as a whole. Often times, she will care for a full patient assignment in addition to the roles and responsibilities of team leader in order to keep safe nurse to patient ratios on the unit. She is always thinking of new ideas in which she can improve the teamwork on our unit. Recently she worked with our managers and unit council to create a fun team building activity based off the "Breakout Games." I know she put a lot of time and thought into creating the activity, she even came into the hospital on her days off to help out.
Danielle embodies everything you would expect of an excellent nurse. She deserves to be acknowledged for her compassionate care and dedication to the nursing profession.