I had the pleasure of having Jake in my CHA1 and clinical courses in Spring 2023. My first encounter with Jake was after our first CHA class in which he stayed after class voluntarily with another student he just met, to help them understand a difficult concept of interpreting ABGs. Since that day, Jake continued to be an extraordinary representation of a team player who leads by example and exemplifies what it means to be a compassionate, humble, caring, and influential student nurse not only to his peers but to every patient he encountered.

Almost every clinical day, Jake would blow me away with how well he could work under pressure, manage his time, critically think, and actually stay one step ahead of me in most cases. There were numerous times when I had ideas in my mind on things that would need to be altered to the plan of care for Jake's patient and every time he was able to present those exact changes to me independently. Not only that, but he would speak to doctors, nurses, ancillary staff, and family with confidence and professionalism, never overstepping his boundaries; except the time he asked me if he could call the doctor for an order he felt was warranted.

He would find medications that were not continued in error and protocols that were not being acted on and would implement them. He was a fierce advocator for his patients, as he requested a care management consult on a patient who confided in him that he did not want to go back to the nursing facility from which he came. Jake also independently consulted a chaplain for his patient and their family who were contemplating hospice. I challenged Jake day in and day out with intense patients who were in restraints, altered mental status, were nonverbal, had difficult family dynamics, and complex backgrounds and he cared for them with respect and dignity. Family, patients, and staff provided me with positive feedback consistently.

Even when he was assigned multiple patients, Jake would recognize proper prioritization and multi-task with ease. Jake incorporates his life experiences, military background, and ER tech experience appropriately and can easily adapt and relate to any and all he comes in contact with. He would always volunteer to show a peer how to bathe or perform a basic skill and remained humble throughout, often asking me to provide him with constructive feedback. He excelled in CHA, which is coined one of the most difficult classes in this program, and on most days did this immediately after working a 12-hour night shift to support his family at home.

Jake possesses comfort working at the bedside in clinical, excels in theory courses, and is a great example of a genuine, sincere human being. He even came to donate blood after our clinical day. The amount of intelligence, compassion, integrity, accountability, selflessness, and teamwork he displays daily in school and life is extraordinary.