Sara came to our unit as a new graduate nurse, and it has been such a pleasure to watch her grow. One situation that sticks out includes a patient who was showing mild signs of altered cognitive status. Sara spotted these changes and notified the primary team. The team unfortunately was reluctant to order any scans and did not share the same concerns. I saw Sara go up the chain of command and advocate for this patient further, armed with her knowledge of the patient and her past assessments. She communicated with the patient’s family in a compassionate way, gaining insight to confirm her suspicion that the patient’s overall health had changed. Sara utilized other members of the team on the unit and ultimately a stroke code was called. The patient was scanned, and Sara's assessments were correct, and the imaging revealed a CVA (stroke).

Sara never skips any steps in her care with patients and gives them her all. She often plays her patients’ favorite music, sings with them, and tries to maintain their routines by getting them up for meals and walking down the halls. Some of our geriatric patients even ask on days when she is not working, “Where is my Sara?”. We’re incredibly lucky to have Sara on our unit!