I have watched Nicole for the last couple of years give her heart and soul to caring for our orthopedic patients at the Kentucky Clinic. We may not be on the floor giving meds and bed baths, but we hold hands, we stay on the phone with family members while they tell us their stories, while they cry, when they are angry and frustrated and in pain, we are there for them. We also get to see them come back in, walking after being in a wheelchair for months. We laugh and cry with them, some of them we talk to several times a week and even serval times a day.

Nicole is the picture of what nursing should look like; she is kind and caring, she knows her patients and she cares for them like they are her own family. As nurses, sometimes we forget to take care of ourselves, we forget to be kind to ourselves because we always feel like we can do better, that we should do better. Nicole is better, she is what we should all strive to be. We take our work home, we live with what we do every day and we take it home with us, little chips out of our hearts when one of our patients doesn't make it, when we show up to that funeral because we are not "just a nurse at the doctor's office" but we see every patient that we love and care for as a small piece of us.

Nicole is a mom, student, sister, daughter, and I'm proud to say my co-worker and friend, but of all the things that she is, she is a nurse who gives her whole heart every day. Her kindness makes us all better people and gives us all something to strive for. The DAISY Award is for someone like Nicole, she goes above and beyond every day and deserves to be seen and to know that she is seen and appreciated.