Nominee's Name: Jennifer Minter
Dept/Unit: NICU
Jennie is one of the nurses in the NICU that goes out of her way to provide both excellent care and extraordinary compassion and empathy to the families that come into the NICU. A most recent example of her work was with the family of a small, critically ill infant. Jennie began taking care of baby M last August. The baby was born 13 weeks premature and was critically ill during most of the 7 months that the baby spent in the NICU. Baby M died 1 day short of 7 months, and Jennie cared for the infant the entire time that she was in the NICU. We received a most beautiful letter from Baby M's mother, telling us about her stay in the NICU and impact that Jennie had on the hospital stay both for her and her baby. Jennie went out her way to try to create some normalcy for this family, allowing the mom to hold and care for her baby even though she was usually surrounded by all of the lines, tubes and equipment found in the NICU. Jennie took the time each day to create special memories for this family, knowing that Baby M would probably not survive to go home to the family. There were so many different memories created, pictures with the family together, making sure Baby M was dressed like a "real" baby, buying Baby M little gifts to celebrate special occasions. Jennie also picked up extra shifts as baby M became sicker, so that the mom could sleep well at night knowing that her baby would be cared for by someone that knew her. On the day Baby M was to be taken off of life support, Jennie came in on her day off to be with the family. In her mother's words "I will always remember my days in the NICU. Some of the days better than other days. Some days filled with tears of joy, some days filled with tears of sadness. On the worst day of my life, Jennie was there, by my side helping me tell my daughter good-bye. To me how do I tell her thank you enough?" Jennie exemplifies what it means to be a nurse, providing excellence nursing care to the patient and extraordinary empathy and kindness to the family. Jennie has been with the NICU for over 12 years and has exhibited all the above qualities: selflessness, skilled kindness, anticipation of the patient's needs, and empathy each and every day she comes to work.
The entire letter written by Baby M's mother is available upon request (in addition to a box of Kleenex that will be needed as the letter is read)