heather mckinney, APRN

Being an ER nurse, we are not known to be all touchy feely with patients. We have one job in an ER and that is to save your life and we do a great job at that on a daily basis. Doing this year in and year out tends to make us jaded, but today I had the pleasure to witness something extraordinary that brought me to tears. There was a patient who was decompensating quite rapidly in the ER. He had no family, and his DPOA made him a DNR and left. It was shift change and I was taking over his care when we received orders to transfer him to the floor for comfort care, but no bed was available. Heather stayed way past her shift with the patient, talking softly, rubbing his shoulder and calming him, even though he was non-responsive. It was a true example of care with compassion.