September 2021 Honoree
Jelena Stevanovic, BS, RN
All your staff was wonderful, but Jelena is a DAISY Nurse. She's like if Jonas Salk and Mother Theresa had a baby and their post-partum nurse was Florence Nightingale---maybe that kid would grow to be a Jelena. We were wildly sleep-deprived and anxious with a 36-hour old baby, and she immediately saw that, for the baby's sake, we needed to get some sleep. She did an amazing balance of helping parents who are too sleep-deprived and overwhelmed to make decisions while still making sure we felt in charge of the situation. That's VERY hard to do. She suggested steps and often did them herself while still making sure we were in charge. And she did this with such assurance and kindness about how we're doing as parents. Those are the (truly exemplary) soft skills she had, and the actual hard skills: teaching us how to burp a baby, recommending how we could use formula while the baby was at the breast so the baby would fill up and then sleep (which worked!), while explaining (to absolutely loopy parents) the pros and cons of formula, and really assured us that self-care is integral to childcare. It's hard to explain because we were so sleep-deprived at the time, but Jelena was a night angel. She came in at a tough time, stepped up with kindness and professionalism, and spent hours with us when we really really needed it. The fact that I'm even taking the time to write this while still sleep-deprived, working full-time, and with a 7-day old baby at home tells you how impactful a role she had for us. I want her to know how much she helped us. You tell her a couple whom she helped is going to name a pet chicken after her, and toast to her when we get our first restful night's sleep.
Thank you, Jelena, for your exceptional compassion, advocacy, and dedication to your patients. You truly make a difference.
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