I was admitted to St. Mary's Family Care to give birth to my son, my first child. We had an extremely rough birth process, but the following day, my son J was born via C-Section. One of our first shift nurses in the Family Care suites was Beth. I initially bonded with her because she was such a positive, warm presence after such a traumatic birth experience. She was dedicated in her care not only to my infant son but to me and my husband, frequently checking up on us and gently scolding that we needed to take care of ourselves as well as our baby. She was so cheerful, personable and knowledgeable that every visit to our room brightened our day.
This alone would have been enough for me to consider her an exceptional nurse; however, before my son was 48 hours old, he started exhibiting seizure activity. Neither my husband nor I had any idea what our baby's "twitching" was, but we are so grateful that Beth happened to be in the room when he started exhibiting this behavior. The minute we showed her what J was doing, she switched into action mode and along with one of the OB providers, moved him up to the NICU for further assessment. After a CT scan, J was sent to another facility for emergency neurosurgery.
While J was in surgery, I had not yet been discharged and had to stay in the Family Care suite. I was again moved by Beth's compassion; she made every effort to check in on me and offer support. She also put the Do Not Disturb sign up on my door and instructed me to rest, then later came in to show me how to pump breast milk for J - she encouraged that it would be the best thing I could personally do to help him heal.
After a number of days at the other hospital, post-surgery, my son was transferred back to the St. Mary's NICU. I was shocked and so touched that, when Beth heard we had been transferred back, she personally stopped down multiple times to see us and see how J was doing, even bringing him a thoughtful gift on his day of discharge.
Even today, when I think back on J's first days of life, I get chills thinking about if Beth hadn't been in the room when he had his seizure. Beth has personal and clinical experience with infant seizures and I strongly feel that it is because of her that my son has such an optimistic prognosis today. Of all the excellent staff we encountered at St. Mary's, Beth's dedication, professionalism, compassion, and experience put her head and shoulders above the rest. I truly cannot thank her enough; this nomination doesn't even begin to express my gratitude and I hope that SSM St. Mary's appreciates what an incredible nurse she is.