Rebecca works in a high-stress position and is often times thrown into situations that are complicated and she needs to rise to the occasion of critically thinking, directing care, and directing staff to achieve optimal patient outcomes. She does this with an ease that sets her apart from her peers. On a busy night, Becca got called to see a patient in respiratory distress. She took control of the situation, directed the primary RN on how to achieve the best outcome for her patient, she performed numerous interventions for this patient and ended up transferring the patient to a higher level of care. All the while doing this, she created a relationship with the patient's scared daughter who was in the room. She realized that the patient was only part of her role in caring and she started to care for the daughter as well. While providing critical care to the patient, she explained everything thoroughly to the daughter, including what they could expect from possible outcomes with her treatment and other doctors who would get involved in the ICU. She took the time and sat with and spoke to the daughter about difficult things including goals of care, all the while reassuring her she would provide the best care possible.
Becca went above her expected role when she got paged away to handle another patient situation. Before leaving the daughter, she recognized the fear in the family and gave the daughter her spectra-link number and told her to call her for anything. Unfortunately, the patient's condition worsened, and the talk of a ventilator being needed was had with the daughter by an intensivist. Upon hearing this Becca responded to the patient but knowing the patient was safe in the ICU care, she focused on the patient's daughter. The patient's daughter ended up having a severe panic attack upon hearing her mother could be intubated. Becca sat with her daughter and worked her through the panic attack.
When coming in for my shift, I called the Becca to find out where she was, and she stated she was with a family member who needed her and would come find me when everything was okay. To put her night into perspective, she was first involved with this patient at 10 pm, and it was currently 7 am when I came on shift, and she was still with the daughter. She also had 5 other critical patient situations to manage during her shift as well, yet she made this family member a priority. Furthermore, after punching out for her shift Becca stated to me that she was going to go and check on the patient and go and see the daughter to make sure she continued to be okay. She did this after she was off the clock, not as an employee, but as a concerned and heartfelt person. She did not leave the hospital that morning until 8:30 am. She went into the room with the daughter to speak to her mother about being intubated. The daughter was beyond grateful for her persistent care and concern in her scariest moments.
Becca showed the truest form of caring that night, which is being there for not just the patient, but the patient's daughter. She demonstrated that her critical care skills were as sharp as they needed to be. Most importantly, she displayed true empathy and humanness for the patient and her daughter by spending the majority of her shift comforting this daughter, preparing this daughter for what was to come, working her through a panic attack, allowing herself to be reached by phone to this daughter when she was not able to be physically present, and preparing both the daughter and mother for intubation after she had already punched out. Becca has the traits of a nurse that cannot be taught but that are inherent - a huge heart, a self-awareness of other's needs, and love for others. I could not be prouder to say that I work with her because she is the type of person that changes you, encourages you, and makes you want to push yourself to be a better nurse.