I had a patient the other day who was very sick. He was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness and he and his wife had returned to the Emergency Room with complications. At this visit, I was his nurse and he couldn't stop talking about Jodi and how great she was the day he was diagnosed in the ER. I thought to myself that regardless of the bad news he got during that visit he still had such a great experience with his nurse, that was what he talked about. That someone truly cared. He did not once mention the doctor, lab, front desk or x-ray. The only person he mentioned was Jodi. Jodi saw him on her way to another patient room and stopped in to see how he was doing. She didn't have to do that, she had four other patients she was taking care of.
Jodi is the epitome of what nursing care should be. She cares about her patients, consoles them during hard times, talks to them in a straightforward manner, and makes them feel like they are worthy of being in the emergency room and they are real people who need to be treated as such.
After I saw them talking in the room, as brief as it was, she came out and said very little other than it reminded her of her dad and she sympathized with them even more because of that. The patient and his wife were even more impressed with Jodi after she stopped by and the knowledge they had regarding his diagnosis seemed to have all come from their initial visit with Jodi. As a nurse, you can do your job but clearly, Jodi went above and beyond and I see this day in and day out from her.