Taylor comes to work every night with a smile on his face and it stays there throughout the shift. No matter how busy he is, if you pass by him, he will ask, Aare you doing ok? Can I help with anything?" He treats each and every patient with respect and kindness. His patients look forward to seeing him return each night. Taylor is dependable and often picks up extra shifts to help when the unit is short.
Taylor takes time to talk with his patients and those patients that are animal lovers bond easily with Taylor when he shows them photos of his dogs or tells them stories about his dogs. He is observant and is always seeking out learning opportunities.
Friday nights on PCU can be rough and this shift was no exception. There had already been a lot of turn over, we were short staffed and one of Taylor's co-workers, M, had to send two patients to ICU after lengthy rapid responses. M had already taken a patient from ER and a patient from Cath Lab, but now she was left with the only two empty rooms on our unit and ER had two more admissions for PCU. To say that our unit was stressed is an understatement.
With tears in my eyes, I carried two more admit slips to M. Taylor saw me coming and asked what was going on. I explained that M would be getting more admits and would probably need some help. Without the slightest hesitation, Taylor said "I don't mind having 5 patients, give me on of the admissions." (Taylor's patients were quite busy as well). He then selected the more difficult of the two admits "because M needed a break." In general, PCU has awesome nurses who are great team workers and always help each other out. But this gesture by Taylor was a whole new level of selflessness. I was awed, humbled and extremely impressed by the actions of this young man and hope that we all can be as considerate and thoughtful as Taylor.