Over the past 45 days, I have watched patient SR go through some of the most extensive surgeries that our hospital has to offer. The patient not only went through the surgeries, they have had every complication along the way. This unclear pathway has set the stage for an unknown destiny of the patient. Throughout this passage, I've watched Tanya Locke weather each storm. I've watched her run massive transfusions, running off multiple pressers, teach students, and even take the patient for a slew of tests and procedures. Each time, multiple shifts in a row she continues to take the patient with continuity of care as the most important factor. No sighs, no complaining, she just kept on going. This is what the base of nursing was built on, hard work, passion, and empathy. All of these describe Tanya's qualities.
During all of these processes, she developed a relationship with the patient's family that, even from afar, seems unbreakable. Today as I rounded the unit, Tanya for another week in a row, was in the same patient's room, tiding up, talking to the patient and getting her comfortable up out of bed and into a chair for the first time in months. Tanya walked away to attend to her other patient, and as her daughter whom is a fellow nurse walked in to see her mom became teary-eyed. Tanya continued to push for the best outcome for her patient. It didn't matter if the patient was crashing or getting into a chair; she pushed and gave 100% each day. I was once told, "Patients don't go to the hospital because they need a doctor, they have offices for that, but patients go to the hospital because they need nurses". If it was my mother in that room, even as a fellow nurse, I know that I could walk away and trust that the job was going to be done as if it was her own family.