My brother was admitted to the ICU. I live out of town and, unfortunately, was not in the room until his final day and a half of life. I did, however, hear wonderful things about the care that my brother was receiving from all of his RNs on both day and night shifts.

When I finally arrived in town very late due to storm delays and having to spend almost 16 hours in the Dallas Airport, I went directly to the hospital and spent some time with my brother. On Wednesday, we called James for an update, and he gave us very honest feedback. He then went to the hospital shortly thereafter. There was not a moment when James was not busy doing everything he could in an attempt to help my brother, even though we all knew what the outcome would be. James rushed to and from, pushing meds, reading machines, and answering questions that every one of my family members and my brother's friends had about my brother and any of the equipment being used on him. All of this while helping precept a student nurse.

The level of professionalism he showed was unmatched. He eventually let us know that they had exhausted every possible option and that we needed to make a decision as to when we would like to stop further treatment. My niece made that decision, and James professionally repeated the decision to all of us, and we agreed that it was time. As we stood around my brother to say our final farewell, there were even tears in James's eyes and running down his face. The absolute humanity this showed me was amazing. I am an RN recruiter for a hospital in Texas, and my most difficult position to recruit for is an ICU RN. If I were able to clone James based on even one of his RN traits, I would be the luckiest recruiter in the industry.

Please count yourself fortunate to have him on your staff in the ICU at Spring Valley Hospital.