Mandy Caldwell cares for her patients as if they were her own family members! She is always cheerful and upbeat, no matter the difficulty of the patient. The patient is her number one priority, but she is also very enthusiastic with family members, teaching them all that she teaches the patient.

Recently, we had a patient on our floor with a jejuenostomy. Basically, everything he would eat came right out of the ostomy within the hour. He was on an IV drip which took care of most of his nutrition, but he loved to eat food and snacks. However, when he ate, his ostomy bag would fill up and leak. It can be time consuming for the nurse to empty and change the bag every hour or so. Some nurses wish that he wouldn’t eat so that the bag won’t leak. But, one day, when that was being expressed by another nurse, Mandy said, “He just likes to eat. Let him eat! It makes him happier to eat his favorite foods.” To me, this statement showed great compassion.

Mandy will do whatever it takes to make a person comfortable and she does her job to the fullest. She enjoys the challenges of med/surg. Mandy works many hours and happily works for coworkers if something unexpected comes up. She is an important part of our 3rd floor team and for these reasons she deserves to receive the DAISY Award!