Gavin truly represents the selfless nature of nurses. Over Christmas break before we started term 1, Gavin lost his dad to COVID and cancer. From what I understand, he was diagnosed with cancer around Thanksgiving. I do not believe he even had the chance to begin treatment when he contracted COVID after Christmas. He passed away within days. Not only did Gavin experience the trauma and grief of losing a parent, but he was about to embark on the stressful journey of nursing school. Even in the midst of grieving, he showed up every day and gave his all to his education and his patients. What impresses me even more, though, is months after his father's death, he took a job as a PCT on the hospice/oncology floor at St. Mary's. With his father's death still very fresh, he selflessly put himself in potentially traumatic situations to take care of patients and support their families as they passed, even though he did not get to see his own father before he was close to death. He took his experience and used it to provide compassionate care to those in similar situations that he was in. I cannot imagine what it must be like to take care of hospice patients when your own loved one's death happened such a short time ago. Nevertheless, he did it, and he did it with great love and care. He used his loss and sacrificed himself amidst grief to help others walking that same path. If that isn't respecting the dignity of each person while providing compassionate care, I don't know what is!