David Crosby
July 2015
David
Crosby
,
RN
Medical Surgical ICU
Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix Campus
Phoenix
,
AZ
United States

 

 

 

The 1st time I met Dave he was working with us on a patient case and the patient ended up dying during his shift. The patient's wife was bedside and was obviously distraught. Her 1st request was to get in bed with her husband. I asked Dave if that was possible and as he responded "of course" he was efficiently and promptly removing machines, capping lines, rearranging the patient in the bed, all to make the last moments a wife shared with her husband, as pleasant as possible. He helped the patient's wife into the bed and put up the rails to keep her safe. The compassion and kindness he showed that day was commendable.

On a 2nd occasion in a similar situation, we had been working with a cancer patient on previous admissions. He had a daughter who was very tenacious and bold and in denial about her father's condition even when it was clear that he was losing the fight. On the next admission the patient was taken to the ICU and was actively dying. His daughter was having a difficult time coming to terms with this. Dave connected with her on a personal level, they were both ex-military and used that as a means to engage with her. He talked with her about her dad and really helped her to come to a place of acceptance with her father's death. Dave was attentive to the patient and the family needs and took the extra time it required to be a comfort to them all.

The 3rd experience was with another very sick patient who eventually ended up passing away in our facility. The palliative medicine team received a very thoughtful letter from the family after the patient's death thanking us for our care and added the following to their letter regarding Dave's care at one point during the hospital stay..."Please also make sure this email gets to Nurse David on the 11th floor in ICU as he played a big role in helping our father. ALL OF YOU REALLY ARE SO AMAZING...THANK YOU!".

Dave has repeatedly and consistently shown this kind of compassion and extraordinary care to his patients. He has a gift for caring for people in an authentic and genuine way and should be acknowledged for his contribution to patient care.