My mother is extremely hard of hearing, in great pain, and, at 83 years old, a little old to undergo back surgery. Needless to say, my sister and I were nervous about her care (as any family would be) and expressed our worries. The care my mother received and the consideration shown to my sister and I was outstanding. We have personally dealt with some very long hospital stays in our family, and the treatment Mom received was no less than the best of any of the other times we dealt with nurses and staff.

A was her nurse when she arrived that afternoon and was so kind and gentle that it made us feel comfortable from the start. That evening, Mom was handed over to Frances, who was amazing. She is very soft-spoken but soon became aware of mom's hearing issues and did her best to be heard. She made sure that mom knew exactly what she was being given, and if mom questioned any medications, she double-checked and let mom know why she was getting that drug. All through the night she was patient with the many position changes mom needed to get comfortable and was aware of keeping the lighting low so we were able to rest better. At about 1 am, Mom asked for ice cream or a popsicle. There was none on the wing, and I offered to go to Wendy's (open til 3am, apparently). We were offered pudding instead, and that was fine. A couple of hours later, Frances woke me to let me know that she had found some ice cream and it was in the freezer with our room number. So kind because we had been placated with the pudding already. Frances never acted rushed or made it known that she had many other patients to care for.

As I put all of this in a message, it may sound pretty unremarkable, but when I was talking with Mom at 4 am, she said that Frances should be nominated for the DAISY Award because she felt that she had been extremely detailed with her rounding. I told her that the care had been remarkable and that I had only used that term to describe hospital care one other time. Thank you for listening to our concerns and having such great staff while we were here. The best part is, no one expected us, so it is apparent that this is how your staff would be any day with anyone. Kudos to them, and kudos to your team.