August 2019
Whitney
Woodland
,
RN, BSN, SCRN, CCRN
NSICU
Saint Luke's Hospital - Kansas City
Kansas City
,
MO
United States
Whitney showed such empathy, as I have never seen.
Our mother suffered a Hemorrhagic Stroke. One minute our mother was there, being the loving, special mom, grandmother, and great grandmother she always was, and then in less than a minute, she wasn’t there. After the decision was made not to operate and to remove life support due to the severe damage to her brain, we, as her family, were lost. As you can imagine our minds were trying to process the medical jargon, the procedures that had been done to my mother’s body, and the whole atmosphere of the ER and then the ICU.
Then we met the night nurse, Whitney, who would be with mom and us for the three nights we spent in ICU. She was the biggest gift we could have received. Whitney showed such empathy, as I have never seen. Her empathy was so selfless, yet so real. Whitney dealt with our mom’s critical state with grace, helping us to feel very involved in the process of my mom’s palliative and then hospice care. Working with her not only eased our grief, but she treated mom as if she heard every word she said. Every time Whitney came into mom’s room she addressed mom by name, she talked to her while bathing her, and to tell her she would see her later. No other person did that the whole time we were there. The quality time she took with mom and us made it seem as though mom was her only patient. We moved to Saint Luke’s Hospice the next day, so I’ve never gotten to thank Whitney as she deserved to be thanked.
Then we met the night nurse, Whitney, who would be with mom and us for the three nights we spent in ICU. She was the biggest gift we could have received. Whitney showed such empathy, as I have never seen. Her empathy was so selfless, yet so real. Whitney dealt with our mom’s critical state with grace, helping us to feel very involved in the process of my mom’s palliative and then hospice care. Working with her not only eased our grief, but she treated mom as if she heard every word she said. Every time Whitney came into mom’s room she addressed mom by name, she talked to her while bathing her, and to tell her she would see her later. No other person did that the whole time we were there. The quality time she took with mom and us made it seem as though mom was her only patient. We moved to Saint Luke’s Hospice the next day, so I’ve never gotten to thank Whitney as she deserved to be thanked.