Erica Tan, RN, is a valued team member on unit 7200, she is kind, caring and consistently goes out of her way for her patients. Erica is a CN-C, an "Engaging New Knowledge" Professional Governance Council member. She maintains our "Employee of the Month" and "Unit RN Certification bulletin boards." One could never accuse Erica of just coming to work and putting in the minimum and clocking out. Erica has quite a commute to work here at Loma Linda, but this is where her passion is.
Recently, we had a patient who had been with us for a few weeks. He was not doing well, but he seemed to rally a bit. He even sat up in the chair while on the ventilator. The patient's wife was very attentive but had postponed calling her husband's out of state family to the bedside because of this rally. The patient took a turn for the worse, and now the wife was urgently calling the patient's sister to come. The sister was flying in and would be arriving at Ontario Airport 11:00 pm.
Erica Tan, RN had been caring for this patient for several days in a row at this time. She was aware of the wife's distress. The wife would not leave the bedside even for meals. Erica bought the wife several meals, out of her own pocket, from our cafeteria and brought the food to her so she could keep up her strength. Erica knew that the wife was not sleeping and just barely eating, and was on the brink of exhaustion. Erica offered to drive to the airport to pick up the sister for this family.
After working her full shift, Erica drove to Ontario. The 11:00 pm flight was delayed until after midnight. Erica met the sister and drove her back to our hospital. After hours it can be difficult to enter the hospital so Erica escorted the sister upstairs so there would be little delay for the distraught sister. Brother and sister were reunited before the end.