Through her humility and compassion for our patients, Jodi embarked on a task to make sure that patient in our units who are spending Christmas in the hospital gets to open even just one present on Christmas day.
Jodi used her own money and bought fleece blankets, she employed her co-workers who helped to knot these blankets by hand. These blankets were then placed in patient's rooms on Christmas Eve. Patient's with families visiting were able to open this present from Santa on Christmas day. For those patient's without family visiting, or those who were intubated and on the ventilator, Jodi played Christmas carols for them on the computer and covered them with the blankets. I was not on the unit on the night of December 24, 2018, nor on Christmas day December 25, 2018, but the reports and feedback I got were that families were crying, the staff was crying, all tears of joy, gratitude and admiration for Jodi's act, her kindness and caring and above all for being an amazing nurse, co-worker and an amazing human being. With her action, she let the patients and their families know that the caregivers truly care about them beyond their diagnosis, beyond the reason they were admitted to the hospital. Jodi ended up distributing these blankets to 35 patients including those in Neuroscience intensive care unit, neuro step down unit 4 west B and patients in MICU all benefited from Jodi's generosity.
Fast forward to February 2019, one of the patients who received a blanket was readmitted to our unit. Low and behold, he was enveloped in this blanket. The patient and family shared with me that the blanket means so much to this patient who appreciated so much the care he received from our team. The blanket has become a sort of a comfort item for him. They report that he always has the blanket with him.
Note: This is Jodi's 2nd DAISY Award!