People often list good qualities of a nurse and healthcare workers as kind, caring, compassionate, empathetic, attentive to detail, being proficient in education provided for the job, and good listeners. These are all definitely great qualities to have, however, there are many times in a nurse's career to where these inner qualities and training school provides is not enough, especially when working with patients that are having atypical symptoms.

During one of the evenings of my stay, I was having some atypical pain symptoms and was inconsolable at times. "Tori" Victoria McKenzie was my nurse and handled it like a champ. I honestly don't know, in those moments, if I would have made it without her. I was in a tremendous amount of pain due to having thoracic surgery/lung removal due to stage 3A lung cancer. This was devastating news emotionally to me as well. Both of my parents passed away due to lung cancer and now I was in the hospital facing physical and emotional pain on top of this. Tori truly is an example of an exemplary nurse. I know at Novant we strive for "remarkable" care, but her care to me was beyond this. No words can adequately express my gratitude to her or describe her as a person or the care she provided me while I was there.

Please know this is not something I do all the time, but this was necessary. Tori went above and beyond to make sure I was taken care of well. I myself am also a caregiver and an employee at Novant. I feel very blessed to have had Tori as part of my care team while I was a patient and also on Novant's team due to the care they provide to others. She is a true example of what care should always look like.