I would like to recognize this nurse for her excellence in care for not one, not two, but three critical care patients in the past two weeks. We were fortunate to have Jenn on duty the day an unexpected baby was brought to the NICU for therapeutic hypothermia. Jenn's skill, confidence, experience and most of all calm nature allowed us to work as a team to care for this baby. On subsequent days, she was assigned to one of two very involved ELGAN babies (extremely low gestational age neonate). These babies required maximum ventilation support as well as IV therapies to manage their nutrition, blood pressures, pain management and infection, to say the least. This particular case was also taxing as the baby had a rare skin condition which required intense skin care treatments.

Due to extensive skin issues, Jenn worked with the multidisciplinary team members as well as experts at Iowa Children's who were experts in neonatal skin. Jenn was able to see through all of these conditions and remain calm and focused, while providing excellent patient care. Her vast experience with critical care was evident as well as her anticipation, critical thinking skills, and thorough process were demonstrated in the excellent care she provided.

Jenn will be the first to say it was a team effort but having her at the helm allowed for excellent communication and execution of care. She was collaborative in working with other nursing and medical staff providers to seek out the best practices for this case.

Due to the involved nature of care of this case, we needed to transport this baby out to a higher level of care. She anticipated the needs of the transport team to send the baby off as soon as possible and in the safest way and delegated efficiently all the things needed to supporting staff.

When she returned to work, she was then assigned the second twin, which required the same level of care as previously noted, and that day also needed to be sent out to a higher level of care.

Despite the emotionally draining experience of caring for infants so medically complex, Jenn had the utmost compassion, stamina, and dedication to care for three critically ill patients and transported them out to other facilities, all within a two-week period. Her compassionate care was so evident as she never lost sight of Mother's needs through it all. Jenn consistently asked the mother if she needed anything, updated her on her babies every step of the way and made sure the mother had meal vouchers to ensure she was in fact taking care of herself. Jenn truly advocated for all of the needs in all of these cases. We are so fortunate to have her as part of our team and want her to know how much she is valued.