My 9-year-old daughter was a patient in the PICU for 9 days. Kat was our nurse on the third day. It had been a stressful and tumultuous time for the first two days as the doctors worked to discover what was causing my daughter's illness. My daughter is highly gifted and therefore has an acute understanding of issues way beyond her age level, however, she also has extremely high levels of sensory sensitivities and over excitabilities. Think of a person whose chronological age is 9, intellectual age is 16+ and emotional age is around 4. She was struggling mightily with staying calm and allowing the medical process needed to improve her condition.
Kat was the first nurse to actually speak directly to my daughter (even though she was technically unconscious) and explain every procedure to her prior to it beginning. She held her hand and comforted her and continued to remind her of how strong she was and that she could make it.
Kat was present for several procedures and she was a calming presence as well as incredibly gifted at explaining things to us and working to keep us calm. We were blessed to have her for a second shift later in our stay (my daughter was conscious by this time but very tired of all the poking and prodding) and Kat was instrumental in working with her to change her perspective from, "I can't do this anymore" to a can-do attitude. She told her it was okay to say, "it hurts" or "I'm sick and I don't like it" but we don't give up and we don't say "I can't".
In addition to her amazing bedside manner, not to mention her top-notch nursing skills, Kat took the time to make sure that our daughter's needs were clearly explained to anyone else interacting with her and spent extra time-sharing helpful hints and insights with the next nurse on duty. And did I mention that she gave my husband and I goals each day for how much water to drink and made sure we at least ate some healthy food? She was amazing and I really don't know how we would have survived those 9 days without her.
Just having her presence for those two days made me realize what we could expect from the rest of the medical team and also that it was okay to advocate for our daughter! Kat's care not only contributed to saving my daughter's life, she cared about her mind and her spirit and that we left the hospital whole! Our family will be eternally grateful