My family and I are honored to nominate Renee Moyer for the kindness and compassion she extended to us during our mother's brief stay in the ICU.
Our mother was admitted after suffering a massive hemorrhagic stroke. She was intubated in the ER, and while we all quickly agreed to a DNR we chose to delay extubation until the following day so that additional family members could arrive.
Renee did a wonderful and effective job collaborating with us to establish a plan, which she clearly communicated - plan of care, physiological changes to expect, interventions, medications, etc. Faced with our large and involved family, many with medical experience, her calm and confidence gave us the freedom to ask more questions, make more suggestions, have more hands-on involvement and truly collaborate to provide the attentive care we wanted for our mother. In the words of the granddaughters, "Renee's kindness, tenderness, and proactive care enabled us to focus on grandmother; to participate fully in her care." When it became clear that it was not likely to be brief after removing Mother from the ventilator, Renee started the process to enable us to take our mother home with the support of hospice, despite it being at the end of her shift.
Renee was professional yet personable; she gave us room to celebrate our mother's life by providing a secure network in the background that brought us great comfort.