Kelly was the nurse taking care of one of our sickle cell patients over the weekend and she deserves special recognition. With the sickle cell population it is sometimes difficult for us to show compassion as often we see that their actions do not match their requests for more narcotics. Often patients seem fine until asked if they want to make any changes on their narcotic infusion and then they state that their pain is almost unbearable and they want to increases their infusions. Many nurses and doctors just brush them off and never try to dig deeper into the reasons for these actions and sometimes we seem to ignore our gut feelings and just allow the child to make all decisions about medication changes and length of stay.

Kelly took special interest in this particular patient and developed sort of a maternal friendship with her that stimulated the patient to look realistically at her situation. She was excited about showing us her ability on the incentive spirometry while sitting up eating breakfast looking better and happier than I had seen this patient on any previous admissions. They bonded enough that the patient felt comfortable sharing a home situation that we were unaware of that may have been an explanation for her multiple admissions and prolonged desire to remain in the hospital. I watched her cry as she had genuine concerns about the safety of this patient and about the breach of trust after she told the physician group about the home situation.

Many nurses that take care of our sickle cell patients on floors other than 4 Henson do not know the history of the patient and may not have experience with this patient population in general. Kelly deserves special recognition for showing true concern and compassion for this patient and developing a therapeutic friendship that truly benefited the patient as she was more inspired to participate in efforts to improve her symptoms. Also, Kelly may have provided a comfortable setting which allowed the patient to make us aware of a home situation that could have been dangerous for her and is obviously affecting her ability to be a productive teenager outside of the hospital.




I just wanted to give a "star" to a nurse. Kelly did an AMAZING job taking care of a very difficult patient this weekend and today. We all could see how much she cared for the patient and did everything to encourage and help her feel better. Her heart was 100% in this patient and it totally made a difference for the patient.