Kailyn has gone above and beyond the call of her job description to care for our baby and the rest of our family. For over 7 months at the time of this nomination, she has been involved with my son's care. She was the first nurse to request to be on his primary care team and even tried to convince other nurses to do so.
Almost every major hurdle and milestone, Kailyn has been there: first surgery and consistent care afterward, our first holds as parents, setting him up for the bead program, involving our older children and loving on them, dealing with the trauma of our son being readmitted and in scary shape, and picking right back up where we left and brainstorming solutions to get him where he needed to be.
Kailyn is attentive, skilled, loving, and an overall excellent nurse. We are honored and very blessed that she chose our son and our family to care for in a long-term hospitalization setting.
Kailyn knows almost all of our son's likes and dislikes. She also knows his medical history and care schedule like the back of her hand. She has connected with our family on many levels whether it's my husband visiting or myself and has let us know that she is our family's nurse too, that we can bounce things off of her and try to understand everything further through her explanations. She takes into consideration the little things like offering to take pictures of us and calling us when she knows we wouldn't want to miss something. We have come to love Kailyn and she's become closer than family to our son.
Just after J was born and we were new to the monitors, she took the time to explain to us over and over what everything meant and what we should be looking for. When he appeared to be in pain or withdrawing from medications, she would talk us through the treatment approach. Later when he was readmitted, she brainstormed with me and my husband what his next steps should be and helped us to formulate a list of several questions we needed to be answered during rounds. Her help and consistent care have been invaluable!
There are several to choose from! There is no comparison to being comfortable knowing that your baby's nurse knows him well and that he's not alone. We got to the point where we looked forward to the days that Kailyn worked. She has been there with reassuring words when I'm crying or having a hard time processing everything. Just one specific day, I was having a hard time processing what it would look like if we needed to be admitted for several more months to get a tracheostomy, and Kailyn stopped what she was doing, gave the biggest, best hug and helped me talk and cry it out.
Kailyn always waited to see what I wanted to do for my son. Bath days she would plan them around my schedule so that I could be involved. As I mentioned above, when he had important milestones, she would call us and make sure we could be there. When he was recovering from surgery, she would ask our input and make sure we understood why he was getting certain medications. She communicated his care so well!