Emily is a day shift RN who occasionally picks up a night shift. She worked tonight and had joked with everyone about how she had 4 days off in a row. We all laughed together because we knew she would pick up a shift in those 4 days off, that’s just the kind of person she is. When our day shift charge saw that the night shift was short the next day, she reached out to Emily to see if she’d come to help her fellow nurses out, she selflessly agreed, ending her 4-day streak off. She arrived to work getting report from me to a very busy, high-acuity group.

Her first of 6 or 7 patients was an active GI bleed, for which she would start her shift giving a blood transfusion, not to mention cleaning the patient incessantly due to the active GI bleed. Then, down the hall, another high acuity patient with possible stridor who proved near impossible through the night to get a doctor to come and assess was doing just fine from a surgical standpoint but had been having audible wheezes throughout the day that continued to get worse. Emily advocated for that patient all night, until the doctor finally came to see him only to emergently transfer the patient to the ICU to be intubated for STRIDOR! These are just 2 of the high-acuity patients that she took care of during her shift.

Emily had a rough night that night, but I’m so glad that she was there to take amazing care of these patients who needed her in their corner. I just want her to know how very much she is appreciated and to thank her for all of her hard work. She is truly an asset to our 6 kidd team!