I met with Jennifer on Wednesday regarding my upcoming carotid artery surgery. My initial impression was that she was warm and friendly and genuinely cared about me. Although I had open-heart surgery following a previous heart attack, I feared carotid artery surgery much more. Jennifer went over my surgical history and listened attentively as I described each event. As she engaged me more in conversation, I found myself becoming more at ease. Jennifer went over my pre-surgical instructions, carefully emphasizing certain ones, and carefully covered my medications one by one, especially on the morning of the surgery. She scanned into my records my Declaration of a Desire for a Natural Death. After accompanying me to the lab for blood to be drawn, she introduced me to a member of the anesthesiology team. As he explained the medical process of his team, I began to feel even more confident in how everyone would work together to ensure my surgery would be a success. An emergency occurred while I was with Jennifer. She professionally explained her need to be certain the right people assembled together to handle it. Then she quickly returned to me. We often don’t remember to recognize and honor those who on a daily basis perform their jobs in a professional, warm, and consistent way. It is my desire to nominate Jennifer Pair for this prestigious award precisely for this reason. She is the epitome of a nurse leader, and it is my pleasure to recommend her.

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I was discharged following surgery to remove blockage (95%) in my left carotid artery. While there, I was blessed to have the superior nursing services of Jennifer Pair. Jennifer was very attentive to me following this serious surgery. She was careful to be by my side for the first day or so anytime I needed to stand or go to the bathroom. Then Jennifer was industrious in freshening my sheets or changing them. She even discovered that my bed wasn’t properly massaging my back because of a faulty power plug. Jennifer’s greatest strength is her ability to show compassion without smothering her patient.