One of our first patients suspected to have COVID-19 was admitted to 4 East. The staff was extremely anxious about the patient coming to their unit. I huddled with the staff on all of the current guidelines and information we had at the time, yet they remained uneasy. The patient was ready to be transferred from the Emergency Department and needed to be assigned to a nurse. When I asked who was going to accept this patient the room was silent. The nurses looked at each other, but Jonathan immediately said, "I will take the patient".
Jonathan and I went to prepare the room for the patient's arrival, only to find we were missing key items. Jonathan scrambled to make everything right. The patient arrived scared and anxious; Jonathan reassured the patient that he would be cared for. Jonathan's care for the patient exemplifies nursing excellence.
In the midst of this pandemic, our ICU was inundated with patients. ICU census far exceeded our personnel capacity for nurses. We developed the team nursing model with non-ICU nurses assisting ICU nurses to care for patients. Jonathan was one of the first to volunteer to be a nurse extender. Nurses in the ICU commented on his willingness to learn, tenacity, and readiness to assist in this most difficult time. Jonathan has shown time and time again his commitment to nursing, our patients, and his colleagues.
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Jonathan has been very respectful and made sure that he would explain to me what medication I was getting. His cleanliness has given me peace of mind during these scary times of COVID-19. So, a big thank you to my nurse, Jonathan. People are always ready to complain and whine but don't take the time to say the good stuff about people.
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Jonathan receives nothing but compliments about his care, mostly about how gentle he is and how he takes the time to explain their care understandably. He's been engaged from the very beginning. I saw that from our skills fair when the new grads were helping with the crowd.