The ICU recently had a patient who had her pregnancy terminated surgically, a fetal demise at 21 weeks. The assignment was very emotional for all the nurses who took care of this patient because we typically do not deal with mother/baby patients, as most of our patients are well over 80-years-old.
When a baby passes in the Labor and Delivery unit, they create a plaster footprint of the baby to be given to the parents as a keepsake. Samantha noticed this had not been completed. She took it upon herself to get a keepsake, went to the morgue, and took a cast of the baby's footprints and then presented the keepsake to the mother and father. The parents immediately started crying and thanking her.
When I went into the room later, the mother was curled up in bed with the keepsake pressed firmly to her heart while she silently wept. She told me just how much it meant to her that Samantha got the footprints and asked me to thank her again as she couldn't thank her enough.
That night, Samantha established a special connection with the patient and family. She showed a great deal of empathy and made a difference that night. She is a wonderful role model for the nursing profession.