July 2016
Paul
Jennings
,
RN
Bone Marrow Transplant
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Los Angeles
,
CA
United States
Paul is an incredible nurse who deeply cares for the patients and families he serves. While maintaining appropriate professional boundaries, he goes above and beyond the minimum required of him to provide excellent care in this emotionally heavy and difficult unit. On multiple occasions, when I discuss difficult cases with Paul, I can see him fight to not let emotion overcome him. He cares so deeply for these children and is so broken when they are extremely sick or die.
One specific reason why I believe Paul is so deserving of the DAISY Award is this—I was told a story of when Paul had a toddler patient who had a brain tumor. The mother was very anxious about her child getting an NG tube and no amount of preparation or information was helping ease her fears. Paul brought in an NG tube and gave her this offer: she could place an NG tube on him so she would see how quick and manageable it was. He let this woman with no medical training insert a tube into his nose and down through his esophagus so that her fears would be somewhat eased. After this, she trusted him to perform this procedure on her beloved child, as I'm sure she trusted him for many other things following this as well.
I mentioned this story to another nurse, to which she responded, "Oh Paul has done that many times. He's probably had dozens of NG tubes placed during his time here at CHLA by parents." Anyone who talks about Paul has great things to say. I have never heard a complaint about his personality, his care, or his presence here on this unit. We need Paul in BMT, with his beautiful passion for the profession as well as his dedication to providing family-centered care. In addition, during multidisciplinary meetings, he advocates for the good of his patients. He is known to bring research and evidence-based practice statements to meetings to validate his points and he is always prepared to give report for psychosocial rounds. Not only is he excellent at caring and showing compassion, he is organized, research-based, effective, and efficient at what he does.
One specific reason why I believe Paul is so deserving of the DAISY Award is this—I was told a story of when Paul had a toddler patient who had a brain tumor. The mother was very anxious about her child getting an NG tube and no amount of preparation or information was helping ease her fears. Paul brought in an NG tube and gave her this offer: she could place an NG tube on him so she would see how quick and manageable it was. He let this woman with no medical training insert a tube into his nose and down through his esophagus so that her fears would be somewhat eased. After this, she trusted him to perform this procedure on her beloved child, as I'm sure she trusted him for many other things following this as well.
I mentioned this story to another nurse, to which she responded, "Oh Paul has done that many times. He's probably had dozens of NG tubes placed during his time here at CHLA by parents." Anyone who talks about Paul has great things to say. I have never heard a complaint about his personality, his care, or his presence here on this unit. We need Paul in BMT, with his beautiful passion for the profession as well as his dedication to providing family-centered care. In addition, during multidisciplinary meetings, he advocates for the good of his patients. He is known to bring research and evidence-based practice statements to meetings to validate his points and he is always prepared to give report for psychosocial rounds. Not only is he excellent at caring and showing compassion, he is organized, research-based, effective, and efficient at what he does.