Almost nine months ago my husband and I welcomed out daughter into our family at Evergreen Hospital. We had some excellent nurses, but over these past several months the exceptional nursing care provided by Heather continues to stick in my mind. As a nurse myself, I have heard the story of Patrick and his family several times when DAISY Awards are presented to nurses at the hospital where I work. When I reflect on my experience admitted to Evergreen I think Heather was exactly the kind of nurse that the DAISY Award was intended to recognize. She exhibited not only excellent clinical practice but also exuded such compassion.
My daughter was born at 12:28 in the morning, so when Heather entered the room at 0700 for safety checks, we were very sleepy new parents. I remember drowsily hearing her ask the off going RN when my Foley bag was last emptied. I knew this was nurse code for "there is something wrong with urine in the bag." I was too tired to really worry at that point, but Heather got to work emptying the urine bag and giving fluid boluses. As the morning progressed she continued to carefully monitor my urine output and celebrated when my urine no longer looked like dark iced tea. My kidneys and I thank her for her astute observational skills and quick intervention.