Erica is a fantastic nurse. She is such an asset to this department. She is kind hearted, optimistic, caring, and has this beautiful calming presence. She makes everyone who comes in contact with her feel special. She makes her patients and families feel like they are her only care in the world.
Just the other day Erica had a newly diagnosed Hem-Onc patient. The family was scared and had tons of questions. Erica comforted them and pushed for Hem-Onc to come and speak with the family to answer their questions. She advocated for the patient time and time again. The patient was in pain, and she would make sure he had pain medication at the first sign of any discomfort in order to keep him from screaming and writhing in pain. We were going to give him blood, but she found errors in labeling, and saved this patient from potentially getting something he should not have.Erica stayed past the end of her shift to take this family to the PICU so they would have some consistency in this newly chaotic situation.
On top of that patient, she had a very busy assignment with time consuming patients, but she has the uncanny way of making each one of them feel special and reassured that everything will be ok. She went through each task with a smile on her face and no complaints. Not to mention, her pod-mate was needing help with something, and she stepped away from her busy assignment without thinking about it to help her co-worker. She had another patient who had returned for the second time that day due to pulling their NG out. Erica stayed in that room and educated the patient's mother until she felt comfortable.
She does everything with such ease and grace. Erica is an amazing nurse and just an all-around great human being.