When Jill Olney, Assistant Manager of Cardiac Nursing at the Egleston CICU, nominated her employee Katie Wellborn, she thought Katie's positive attributes could be best described by a grateful patient family's story. The family shared that their 3-year-old son, E, was admitted to Egleston in heart failure March 31. By April 2, he'd been placed on the transplant list. Just a few weeks later, the family's baby girl was born. "It was almost overwhelming," wrote the mother, "and had we not been able to trust E's care team or rely on them for support, I don't know how we would have made it."

Katie, who recognized that consistency in care made a big difference for this family in crisis, requested to become E's primary nurse. She'd even check in on E when she was not assigned to the family on a particular shift. "Paying attention to how E looked and felt day to day was key to getting ahead of potential problems," wrote the mother. "It meant so much to us to feel like we were being heard and respected when it came to decisions about our son."

When E had his successful heart transplant in June, Katie came in to see him even though she was not scheduled to work. "She helped distract him while we waited for his surgery by wheeling him around in his wheelchair," shared E's mom. "She sincerely cared for him and for us, and we trust her as a nurse and as a friend."