May 2026 Honoree
Jessica Verwiel, RN
I was receiving prenatal care off base at our last duty station and it felt like the local providers were not listening to me and nothing about my pregnancy felt straightforward.
My husband and I PCS'd to Landstuhl specifically for me to get American OB care at 32 weeks. The care I received from the MFM clinic staff, labor and postpartum nurses were all amazing. And I feel like I can say that because I am a nurse myself, I have seen the nursing practice of thousands of nurses in my 10 year career. But my husband and I just keep talking about one nurse in particular and how she was an integral part of the birth of our son.
A new inpatient gestational diabetes policy just rolled out and I was the first patient to actively use the protocol. When Nurse Jess came on shift, we quickly realized the hospital did not have a clear liquid carb friendly diet menu for me to eat while in labor and the meal sent on my tray was not appropriate. She marched down to the nutrition office and huddled with the chief nutritionist to find me options to eat that would not spike my blood sugar and result in an unnecessary placement of an insulin drip to control my blood sugar.
When she came on shift, I had been stuck at 5cm for hours. She got me out of bed and doing interventions to help move my labor along, She's pregnant and she was even getting on the floor and demonstrating all the positions to help me. I was very impressed because there's no way I could work a 12 hour shift pregnant and do all those maneuvers. I started progressing along quickly after that.
When it came time to actively start pushing, she was such a good coach; teaching me different breathing techniques, positions and even pulling my husband aside out of my ear range to teach him how to best support and coach me through the pushing process. She really advocated for me throughout the day and when the provider was bouncing between multiple patients pushing at the same time, she jumped in to help me push.
My husband and I were both really sad when her shift was over and ultimately my delivery resulted in a c section about an hour after she left but my husband and I keep saying that if she would have been our nurse at the end, a surgical intervention may have not been needed. I truly could not have done my labor without her.
My husband and I PCS'd to Landstuhl specifically for me to get American OB care at 32 weeks. The care I received from the MFM clinic staff, labor and postpartum nurses were all amazing. And I feel like I can say that because I am a nurse myself, I have seen the nursing practice of thousands of nurses in my 10 year career. But my husband and I just keep talking about one nurse in particular and how she was an integral part of the birth of our son.
A new inpatient gestational diabetes policy just rolled out and I was the first patient to actively use the protocol. When Nurse Jess came on shift, we quickly realized the hospital did not have a clear liquid carb friendly diet menu for me to eat while in labor and the meal sent on my tray was not appropriate. She marched down to the nutrition office and huddled with the chief nutritionist to find me options to eat that would not spike my blood sugar and result in an unnecessary placement of an insulin drip to control my blood sugar.
When she came on shift, I had been stuck at 5cm for hours. She got me out of bed and doing interventions to help move my labor along, She's pregnant and she was even getting on the floor and demonstrating all the positions to help me. I was very impressed because there's no way I could work a 12 hour shift pregnant and do all those maneuvers. I started progressing along quickly after that.
When it came time to actively start pushing, she was such a good coach; teaching me different breathing techniques, positions and even pulling my husband aside out of my ear range to teach him how to best support and coach me through the pushing process. She really advocated for me throughout the day and when the provider was bouncing between multiple patients pushing at the same time, she jumped in to help me push.
My husband and I were both really sad when her shift was over and ultimately my delivery resulted in a c section about an hour after she left but my husband and I keep saying that if she would have been our nurse at the end, a surgical intervention may have not been needed. I truly could not have done my labor without her.
Thank you, Jessica, for your exceptional compassion, advocacy, and dedication to your patients. You truly make a difference.
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