Jennifer Paradis is a kind, caring and compassionate nurse who always goes above and beyond for her patients, families, and co-workers. One particular night shift, I was in charge during the day and assigned her to one of our long-term patients. She is a part of his primary nurse team and knew him very well. This well-known patient was a long-term complex congenital heart patient who has endured many surgeries and complications during his 17 months of age.
During the day shift, he was particularly irritable, which was thought to be due to constipation. By evening, he had spiked a fever and went into SVT, a heart rhythm he often struggled with. Jenn started her night shift very busy with him- constant assessments, IV boluses, medications to control his fevers, labs, echocardiograms, and IV push medications to try to break his SVT. She sought out many resources, including the charge nurse, PICU nurses, residents, and attending doctors, while also supporting his mother, who was here alone. This mother was very close to certain nurses whom she had developed a trusting relationship with over the long months of constant hospitalizations and complications from his complex cardiac anatomy, and Jenn, fortunately, was one of them. The SVT finally broke at 11:30 pm, however, it didn't stop there. He became hypotensive, had increasing oxygen requirements and was declining. Jenn went above and beyond to fiercely and persistently advocate for this patient, support his mother when clearly she knew something wasn't right. Jenn made endless calls to PICU nurses, the charge nurse, the respiratory therapist, and residents to come assess the patient. The medical team ran through his assessments, medications received and his whole plan of care together to critically think if they were missing something. At 2:20 am, the patient was moved to PICU for more intensive care, high flow nasal oxygen, and blood pressure drips and eventually ended up on an epinephrine drip. From the time Jenn started her night shift at 1900, she didn't leave this patient's room until he went to PICU.
Jenn continued to check on this patient for the rest of her shift, including right before shift change. She felt he was looking better, more stable, and after speaking with the PICU nurse, Jenn gave report on her other patient and left to go home relieved that he had "turned the corner". Once she reached home, she got the devastating news that this patient had entered into a life-threatening heart rhythm just after change of shift and had unfortunately passed away after 30 minutes of unsuccessful intensive resuscitation. Jenn immediately got back into her vehicle and drove back to the hospital to be with this mother. When she walked into the patient's room, the mother was rocking her peaceful baby. Jenn just went to her and hugged her. As she left the room, the cardiologist gave her a big hug and told her, "you did a great job and thank you for taking such great care of him".
The following day I was able to see this mother when she returned to get some belongings she forgot. We hugged for a long time without saying a word. She told me how appreciative she was for the primary nurses who cared for him.
Thank you, Jenn, for your outstanding, kind, and compassionate patient and family-centered care, your strong leadership and patient advocacy, and your commitment to making a difference in each patient you care for.