After undergoing bowel surgery, I was a patient on Sir Patrick Duns ward. While on the ward, I witnessed many examples of kindness and excellent patient care from all the staff on the ward. One nurse (Rebecca), in particular, I think, deserves special mention because I believe she is so good at connecting with her patient’s needs.

One example of this would be an instance of kindness that involved a patient on our ward who was 81 years old and was experiencing their first stay in hospital in his life. This patient's name was J, and I spoke to him regularly. J had a very complicated medical condition, which resulted in what turned out to be five days of fasting. Each day when food was being served, J would hope that today would be the day he would be allowed to eat, but each day, it would be explained to him the reasons why he could not.

On his third day of fasting, we could all see J was feeling very low. I saw Rebecca, who was one of the nurses looking after us that day, have a quiet word with J. She appeared shortly afterward with two wash basins filled with warm water and a soap sponge in each. Rebecca helped J place a foot in each. For about 30 minutes, J sat with his feet steeping in water, and while he was doing this, he repeatedly looked over at me and how marvelous this made him feel. I just thought this was an excellent example of how a relatively small act can mean so much to someone at a low time in their life. I really feel that this act showed Rebecca to be the kind, excellent nurse that I have no doubt she is.