I want to recognize Megan Good for the care she provided to a baby boy, whose first name was given to him to honor his late father, who died during his admission here at UKMC for COVID-19, just hours after he was born.

The baby boy was born emergently for non-reassuring fetal heart tones and required 15 minutes of CPR at birth, after which he spent 36 days in the NICU working on weaning support until he was ultimately discharged, only requiring a small amount of oxygen. Before his mother moved to Kentucky, she had worked as an RT in the NICU setting. I will paraphrase her words to me, which will really paint the picture of the situation. His mother shared with me that her professional experience tells her that her son being alive today is a miracle. Conversely, her professional experience as an RT and probability tells her that her husband statistically had a 99% chance of beating his battle with COVID and did not.

When Megan Good was assigned to the baby boy early on in his NICU stay, I know she worried that he would not survive. I often joke with certain NICU nurses about the types of babies they like to pick up as primaries, and Megan is certainly a lover of the “itty bittys”, as she jokingly calls them. This baby was born at 34.2 weeks, which is premature, but is certainly not what a seasoned level 4 NICU nurse would consider an “itty bitty.” His main obstacle was hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy; essentially, his brain was deprived of oxygen at birth, and that can come with a host of problems. Megan shared with me that she was on the hunt for a new “itty bitty” when she met him and his mother, and described the day that she decided to become his primary nurse.

She was with the mother as the baby's attending, fellow, and resident rounded and let her know they were going off service and would be replaced with new faces. The mother had shared with Megan details of her husband’s hospitalization on the COVID unit, and one theme was the lack of continuity in his care. Megan looked at her that day and knew that both she and the baby deserved continuity. She could see on the mother's face that she desperately needed to know and trust someone to feel comfortable with his care. She signed up to be his primary, and I firmly believe it was a game-changer for him medically. From my standpoint, Megan’s presence in their lives will be a silver lining in the undeniable trauma she experienced on the day of his birth. When she looks back on her son's NICU stay, I know her reflection of Megan will remind her that there is kindness and hope in the most difficult of times.

I will now speak to what Megan volunteered for from a psychosocial standpoint. As someone whose career involves sitting with grieving families, I understand that being with someone who is acutely grieving means that there is palpable sadness in the air. There are times when there is nothing you can say to comfort a person, and the best thing you can do is listen. Megan shared with me that there were many times she didn’t know what to say, but she would just be present. It was at that moment that I knew Megan was the right nurse for this mother and baby, no matter his diagnosis.

After hearing her share with me about her husband, their life together, the birth and hospitalization of their son, and how she is managing day to day, I reflected to her what I thought she must be feeling. Her whole world had just stopped, while everything else around her kept going. In that difficult space, Megan was able to become a person she trusted. This trust allowed her to be home with their older daughter, plan arrangements to honor her husband, and be cared for by her friends and family.

Megan was the baby's primary nurse on paper, but that certainly does not do justice to the impact she had on his life and his mother's. Megan’s care was the definition of compassion and providing quality patient-centered care. That is what a DAISY Award is all about, and I can’t imagine a nurse more deserving.