Erin McDonnell, RN

My wife was admitted to the hospital with some very scary symptoms in the evening; the night staff got her checked in from the ER and we had an evening of processing to do. We woke to the dayshift and Erin introduced herself. Right away, I could tell that Erin was the nurse my wife needed. All of the staff placed a priority on my wife’s needs but when introducing herself to my wife, she placed her attention directly on my wife’s care; I can only explain it as a zeroing in and an energy about her that said, “I am here for your wife and will protect her and advocate for her so that she can begin to heal.” She demonstrated this consistently throughout our time with her through her actions and words; she answered my wife’s questions, she helped create a plan for my wife so that, when family became too much, she was able to indicate that she was overloaded and consistently checked in about my wife’s comfort and needs, she made sure that the things that were important to my wife were taken care of, she made sure we had tons of ice packs and ice and the forms we needed and the contacts we were looking for, and she made sure my wife felt like she could rest and heal. In doing this, she also gave me the space to rest, and process, and help care for myself. I will always be grateful for the protected healing space she made in these first days of my wife’s MS diagnosis; I was able to trust her with protecting MY PERSON and felt 1000% okay with letting down my guard and letting other people help so I could rest as well. Thank you, Erin.