My son was a patient at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. During his stay, he was transferred from the 7th-floor unit to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). It was in the PICU that we met our ray of sunshine, Nurse Jess.
Some background is required to appropriately lay out the state of my life when we were blessed to meet Nurse Jess.
In early August, I had a pretty nasty mountain biking accident. The ER docs at the hospital where I was treated said it was amazing I had survived and that the helmet saved my life (it was cracked in ½).
Soon after, my son had his first mountain bike race of the season and did great. After the race he was complaining of not feeling "right", he went to school Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday he was beyond just not feeling sick. Thursday, he took a turn for the worse. He was taken to an urgent care facility where he was diagnosed with Giardia, he came home at 1:00 AM and felt like a million bucks! The next week, my son texted me and said he thought something was wrong with him. I instructed him to wake his mother as I was not home. My wife took him immediately to his pediatrician who took one look at him and sent them to a hospital ER stat.
He was admitted and they started a whole regime of pain management, performed an x-ray, a CAT scan, etc. We spent the night there and then late the next morning the doctor came in and said that the tests showed he had contracted Shiga Toxin Inducing E-Coli (STEC) and that we had to be transferred to Children's Hospital right away as they had the resources to deal with this as there was a concern that it would progress to Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).
About three days into our stay at Children's, my wife started complaining that she was not feeling well. Later that night she called and said she was having GI issues with some serious signs of distress, so she went to the ER and was admitted. Long story short, she too had contracted STEC. I was without a change of clothes, running on little to no sleep, and had both my wife and son in hospitals far from one another.
So, with all of this "baggage", we met Nurse Jess. The atmosphere of PICU is like nothing we had ever experienced, the constant cacophony coming from the monitors and the babies surrounding us, the bright lights outside of his curtained bed area, the cooler temperatures, and the never-ending visits to check vitals, etc. From the moment we met her, she made us feel as if we were the only patients in PICU. While we knew this was not the case, it was exactly what we both needed. Her level of confidence in performing her care and her compassion reduced the stress that both my son and I were going through. After a day in PICU, Nurse Jess finally convinced me to sneak away to the Parent's Lounge for a nap. She was matter of fact that in order to take care of my son, she needed me to take care of myself as well. She assured me that she would let me know if I was needed for any reason whatsoever. My nap turned into a full 4-hour sleep. It was only due to her level of competence and care that I was able to leave my son's side.
After we saw some improvement in my son's condition, Jess told him that after his nap he was going on a trip outside. Forty-five minutes later, there was Jess with the wheelchair nudging my son out of his bed and into the healing powers of fresh air and sunshine.
Each day we both looked forward to the start of Nurse Jess's shift as we knew that she would once again go above and beyond to ensure that our stay at PICU was as pleasant as possible. A patient in PICU Main has little to no privacy, Jess made sure that he had as much dignity as possible for all his needs throughout the stay.
During this time, I was able to witness Jess handle multiple types of patients and their parents/caregivers. During one of our nights there, a particularly intense set of parents with their older child arrived. They were less than polite and were quite demanding in their tone and actions. Jess was able to immediately assess the situation and worked diligently to diffuse the tensions levels and worked to make these parents as comfortable as possible. By the time they were transferred, they too were fans of Nurse Jess.
On another occasion, there was an infant transferred in with a family whose mother tongue was not English. She meticulously explained everything that was going on and took the time to ensure that her words and actions were clearly understood as she handled their infant. It was magical to watch her work in yet another situation and to handle it with utter grace and care.
As I told my friends, I am so grateful that Jess found her "why", as this was our "need". My family and I will forever be grateful for the love and compassion that Jess showed us. We are better people for having met her.