Flora, an oncology nurse who is continuously praised by patients and family members for her care and compassion. She is compassionate, goes the extra mile for the patients, and invests extra time in the unit and all because of her passion for the profession of nursing. Patients and families consistently ask her. You can see their facial expressions change when they see her. That look of trust and reassurance that they can cope with anything with Flora taking care of them.
As a specialty, it can be quite challenging scheduling staff with particular skill sets especially in a unit that contains more than one specialty such as ours- Oncology/Hematology/Nephrology. One such situation arose whereby due to simultaneous staffing challenges of sick leave and emergency leave we would have to reschedule our short stay admissions of our oncology and rheumatology treatments. At this point, Flora intervened and identified one patient who she believed could not be canceled. Not due to her clinical condition secondary to cancer but due to her psychological disposition related to denial of her illness and reluctance to start treatment initially.
In this situation, Flora volunteered her services to come four hours earlier on shift to ensure this patient's schedule was not disrupted. With administrative approval, Flora came and administered the chemo to a patient who was unaware of what Flora had done. She went above and beyond to care for her patient. Her attitude and compassion to patients make them comfortable, happy and satisfied. Flora is an exemplary nurse and anyone whose care falls between her hands is a lucky patient.