Florence
Silk
December 2010
Florence
Silk
,
RN, BSN
Medical/Surgical/Renal
Saint Peter's University Hospital
New Brunswick
,
NJ
United States

 

 

 

“DK” has been a long standing patient of the Adult Medicine unit. He has been dealing with a chronic illness and this has made it impossible to fulfill his role as Pastor to his congregation. Many Saturdays when he should be ministering to his congregation he will be laying in an isolation bed with us. This year on August 19th, DK celebrated a birthday, but as usual he was in an isolation room, so the staff on the unit bought him some balloons and sang Happy Birthday to him. He was so very happy and touched, and gladly shared with the team how his nurse, Florence, had already served him a birthday cake made of ice chips (since he was NPO) earlier that morning. The patient went on to tell the whole team how we had made a difference in his life, particularly recounting the fact that every weekend when Florence was working, she would wheel her computer on wheels into his room and stream his church services live for him so he could still be a part of his church. As he shared this with us, you could just see the joy and appreciation he had, that someone would be so kind and make every effort to bring some light into his dark world. Florence thought she was really doing something very small, but this simple thing has made such a difference in the life of DK. Florence is such an extraordinary person with such love and compassion for her patients. She is an inspiration to her team mates.