I work with Kate in the ICU on night shift and this story occurred one night while we were working together.

It was a busy night in the unit and we were all doing our best to provide the best care to our critical patients and work together as a team. Kate was caring for a patient that was extremely sick. This patient also needed not only support from a medical standpoint, but emotional as well, for this patient would sometimes become anxious in our unit. Now it is not uncommon for our patients to feel anxious or scared. A diagnosis of cancer is absolutely terrifying and when patients are sick enough to be transferred to our ICU it can be utterly overwhelming. This patient was up for most of the night while Kate was caring for him. It was interesting that despite his sickness and everything that was going on with him. he still shared a love for card games.

At two in the morning the patient called and Kate went in to ask what the patient wanted. In our ICU we work together as a team so after a few minutes I called in to Kate to see if she needed help and she said she was fine. After a half hour Kate was still in the room so I went in to see if everything was okay and I found Kate sitting in a chair across from the patient playing cards. I remember asking, "Kate do you need anything?" She simply replied, "No, we are just playing rummy and hanging out." Kate spent over an hour playing rummy with this patient and I truly admire her for this act. It seems like such a simple task, playing cards, but when caring for these critically ill patients the ICU can be extremely busy.

It was wonderful to see how grateful her patient was for Kate to spend quality time playing cards and help him relax over a game of rummy. I nominate Kate for this award because she is an excellent nurse. She is a team player in our ICU and provides phenomenal care. She is always there to lend a helping hand or share her knowledge in the unit. She is very intelligent and compassionate and I believe she is an exceptional role model for nursing.