Emily is a charge nurse on 6 North at BSW Medical Center in Temple. She consistently provides ethical and exceptional care to her patients and sets the example for nursing leadership. Emily goes out of her way to support her patients and her team, and she truly cares about her floor, hospital, and organization. In one situation, there was a patient on the floor for several weeks with a terminal/irreversible condition who did not have capacity, and they had an extremely challenging family situation. Ethics was involved, and Emily participated in several conversations as an advocate for both the patient and her team with respect to how they should provide end-of-life care while also respecting the patient's wishes to continue all aggressive treatment. This patient situation caused great moral distress for the team because, in situations like this, CPR is not medically appropriate and will cause patients harm with little to no benefit because it will not fix their underlying condition. As their leader on multiple shifts, Emily frequently escalated to ethics and her leadership so as to provide the best support for all parties involved. But she went a step further because she truly sought to understand the ethics behind this challenging case and how legal and ethical were intertwined. After all, she wanted to serve as a better resource for her staff.

In another situation, Emily had a patient on her floor whose spouse had an unexpected health event, coded, and was an inpatient in the MICU. Emily's team was continuing to care for their patient while accommodating multiple distraught family members and also allowing their patient to stay in the MICU with his spouse, while she was expected to pass away. Emily escalated the situation to case management, who assisted in moving both patients to the hospice unit on STC4 to a double room. This allowed the husband to continue his inpatient care at the bedside with his spouse, who was transitioning to comfort care, and was best for the family, who were taking turns between the floors when the husband was upstairs. Because of Emily's quick thinking, knowledge of resources, and dedication to her patients and her team, these two patients were able to be moved together quickly and safely. When I spoke with the family in the MICU and updated them about the plan to move the patients to a double room, several family members started sobbing, and they all expressed their extreme gratitude to Emily for caring for their parents and going out of her way to bring them peace during this difficult time. It is my absolute honor to nominate Emily for the DAISY Award. She is a blessing to the BSW family, and I always look forward to working together because I know our team will have the support they need.