January 2021
Sara
Lipcamon
,
RN, CPN
Pediatric Progressive Unit
Atrium Health Levine Children's Hospital
She immediately promised us she was going to be there through whatever it looked like. Sara devoted her time to creating an environment of patient and family-centered care.
Sara was the nurse assigned to our terminally ill son for the final two days of his life, but Sara was so much more than that to our family. Upon meeting us, Sara knew our situation: a baby in comfort care with Palliative Care, and parents with limited direct support due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of protecting herself from heartache or pain by creating distance between her, us, and our son, she selflessly got closer and immediately promised us she was going to be there through whatever it looked like. Sara devoted her time to creating an environment of patient and family-centered care. She maintained a positive attitude while juggling our son's rare medical needs, our own needs and emotions, and the needs of her other patients. Sara communicated with all members of the interdisciplinary team to make sure all needs were met. She frequently communicated with the physicians to discuss the plan of care and advocated for our son by making sure his medications were appropriate and achieved the optimal response. While doing all of this, Sara even engaged Child Life to make sure we had every keepsake possible, including his heartbeat in a bottle, hand and footprints, and a scrapbook page of his heart rhythm taken while we read our son his bedtime stories. After our son passed and our family was discharged, she made additional keepsake items she felt our family may cherish and ensured we had all of his belongings we left with him. Sara is more than a nurse. She performed her job admirably in a high-pressure situation. We only knew her for 48 hours, but Sara filled the role of a friend, confidant, and stand-in family for us; making a heartbreaking and unbearable situation a little bit less excruciating. Sara Lipcamon, RN, CPN truly is an Extraordinary Nurse, and we will never forget her or what she did for our family.