I am a resident physician at Baptist. For the past few days, this nurse has been working with a patient of mine who has essentially given up on life. It is a sad case because the patient is actively working against the medical team and has even been previously fired by multiple physicians. This nurse absolutely refused to give up on this patient. The patient is severely depressed and hanging on by mere threads, but refuses all life-saving treatment, including efforts by psychiatry and palliative medicine. The patient would rather wallow in self-pity and perhaps do the bare minimum if they feel like it. The patient's attitude has been highly discouraging to the primary medical team and consults, but this particular nurse was able to breathe new life into an old and tiresome situation. She deserves this award because of her dedication as an excellent nurse. She went above and beyond the call of duty for someone actively working to antagonize her. Whereas the primary team was at times at a loss for words for how to proceed but kept pushing the patient to keep going. I do not know how the patient's situation will end. What I do know is that this nurse has the patience of a saint and no matter how much she makes, she deserves so much more!

***

This nurse was over the care of an exceptionally difficult patient whose non-compliance was daily in the face of a life-threatening illness. She demonstrated patience unlike many of her peers who had also had this patient before. She was gentle with him while being honest. She was kind to him while being firm. She cared for his body while encouraging him to care for himself. Although this patient had the capability to take care of many of his ADLs, he often refused, providing more work for the nurses. She handled this cleverly and with compassion. On this day, I have just ended a 30-minute conversation with this patient about taking his life-saving medications. Throughout the full 30 minutes, the nurse was extremely impressive. As a Physician here, it is comforting to know that she provides this level of care to her patients, even those that make her job as harder than it should be.