In honor of Nurses Week and Mother’s Day, our family would like to nominate one of our mom’s nurses to be recognized with the DAISY Award. In January, our mom was hospitalized at Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato where she received great care from the nursing staff. One nurse, Kristi Fett, RN, made a very positive impression on our mom and our family. Kristi was positive and upbeat as she provided care to our mom. Mom was hospitalized in Mankato several times between January and April. She was blessed to have Kristi as her nurse on several occasions. The care, kindness and compassion from Kristi always brightened our mom’s day and gave our family peace of mind. Kristi consistently went the extra mile when caring for our mom and beyond.

One example of going beyond is during one hospitalization; mom was transferred to the Medical/Surgical floor. Kristi was assigned to patients on that floor for a shift. When she learned that our mom was hospitalized again and on that floor, she stopped in her room to say hello. Not wanting to take time away from her assigned patients, she told mom she would come back to visit at the end of her shift. Mom was asleep later that evening when Kristi stopped back. Kristi wrote a note and hung it up in Mom’s room for her to see when she woke up. Kristi also stopped back the next day to see how Mom was doing.

Sadly, our mom developed complications during her last hospitalization and passed away. Upon hearing of our mom’s passing, Kristi took the time out of her life to attend the visitation prior to going to work. We all smiled when we saw her in line and cried when she knelt down to extend her sympathy to our dad. Kristi touched our family’s hearts and will forever be a special person to us. Her kindness, care, and compassion made our mom’s hospital stays brighter. It’s hard to adequately express our family’s appreciation and respect for Kristi. She is a wonderful nurse and has a great future ahead of her.