Gabrielle Mangan is an extraordinary nurse. After over 30 years of working as a nurse her passion, drive, and empathy towards others remains as strong as ever. All of our staff would agree that she goes above and beyond her call of duty for both her patients and her co-workers. Her dedication to the patients, hospital and the staff was exemplified particularly over the last few months when she was asked to step up as acting Nurse Manager during our manager's unexpected leave of absence. She switched from working the permanent night shift to day shift five days-a-week, no small feat. She has handled scheduling, new employees, the implementation of patient-centered rounds, and many other changes with grace and ease. She has been approachable and present on the unit for any staff members, patients, and patient's family. We cannot thank her enough for her dedication.
When asking other staff members for stories about Gabe's caring nature, one will receive many positive responses. She recently stayed late to go to several stores for a patient, looking for a pillow to replace a special pillow that had been misplaced during the patient's hospital stay. When it could not be located, Gabe took it upon herself to find the perfect replacement.
We had a patient on our unit who was older, without any family members or visitors, who was in the hospital over his birthday. Gabe made his favorite cupcakes for him, and his happiness was a pleasure to see. He ended up passing away a few days later, and I always think how nice it was for him to have the memory of someone caring enough to bring in that special gift.
One Christmas Eve she also drove to a patient's house to return some items a patient had accidentally left in the hospital. She wanted to ensure that the patient had these belongings over the holiday season. Gabe is one of those nurses that all the patients know by name, who smile and wave to her when she walks down the hallway. She has been the glue that has kept our unit together, and again our staff and patients cannot thank her enough for all of her hard work and devotion.