Sarah is an extremely compassionate, well-rounded nurse, especially considering that she has only been in acute care for less than a year! We recently had a patient on our unit who had about a 3-week stay here with us, and who had a lot of different health issues going on during her stay. She celebrated her wedding anniversary and a birthday with us, as well. Sarah happened to be taking care of her on her birthday, and took it upon herself to purchase a "Happy Birthday" balloon and a birthday card from the hospital gift shop, and had all of the staff on the unit sign the card for the patient. She was also able to help the patient convince a very stubborn cardiologist to sing the patient "Happy Birthday," and if you knew which cardiologist I was talking about, you would never believe me if I told you that this really happened!
Sarah was able to demonstrate to this patient just how much we cared about her and made her feel like a person and that we truly cared about what was going on with her, not just what we had to do for her. Yesterday, I received a letter from this patient's husband, who was very touched by the care that his wife received on our unit, stating the following:
"Your staff truly brightened my wife's day with their kidding around and things they jokingly said in passing. Thank you also for giving her such a memorable birthday. I will never forget the staff there and they truly deserve heartfelt thanks. Your staff stepped up to the challenge, answered the call and took care of her with the kid gloves her case demanded and did so with the utmost respect and professionalism anyone could wish for."
In my leadership rounding, the patient mentioned Sarah by name a few times; citing how professional she was in her practice, but also that it was truly evident that Sarah was meant for the profession of nursing. Her caring nature is evident in her practice every day with every patient, and she is a very competent and capable practitioner. 5 Tower and Mount Carmel are lucky to have her!