The patient came in to the ED complaining of shortness of breath on a day when she was scheduled for an outpatient stress test. The doctors thought she suffered from anxiety, but the reality was that she needed open heart surgery. Michelle, who was assigned to care for this particular patient and worked diligently to assure this patient was thoroughly prepared for her open heart surgery. The next day, she shared with her manager how hard she worked to assure this patients testing and order sets were complete and how it was a little overwhelming to assure everything was complete before the late evening hours so the patient could rest. Several days later, after the patient was post-operatively transferred back to CTU from ICU, the manager rounded on this patient and that’s when she heard the story that the nurse neglected to mention…

That night before surgery, in the chaos surrounding all of the pre-surgical work, the patient was scared and started to cry. The patient said that she could tell that Michelle was very experienced, and she knew she was in good hands. But everything was happening so quickly. Michelle immediately stopped everything that she was doing and pulled up a chair to the bedside. She sat down with the patient and held her hand. She spent time talking to the patient and listening to her fears. The patient said that Michelle told her to be courageous and to pull upon all of the strength she had from her life experiences. Heart surgery is frightening, and Michelle couldn’t change that, the patient felt that she gave her the strength to get through that night. Michelle also called pastoral care, and the chaplain came in at midnight and read biblical passages to the patient. The patient’s mother later even printed these passages and left them at the bedside because they meant so much to her daughter.