Amanda Harwood is an excellent example of a nurse of excellence. In addition to serving on several committees and workgroups, she has furthered her education by obtaining her BSN and her CCRN.
Amanda represents Memorial's core values to the utmost of her ability. She helps our patients through their darkest of days. There are many examples of this, but I want to illustrate a specific event that not only touched both the lives of her patient and their family, but also the lives of her co-workers.
On this particular day, there was a patient in the Hixson ICU who was dying, and the family was not willing to come to visit with him. The patient was extubated for a terminal wean and was struggling after his extubation. Amanda decided to stay with this patient. She pulled up a chair to his bedside, held his hand, cleaned him up and talked to him so that he would not be alone. She stood in for the family that was not there. She even took calls from the family to give them updates even though they chose not to come to the hospital. She gave care to both the family and the patient. I stayed in the room with Amanda as she monitored and provided reassurance for this patient as he died peacefully. She made sure he was not alone in those last, precious moments of his life. She made his dying dignified and special.
Several of our hospital's employees witnessed her care that day and expressed how this touched their lives to be more kind and caring. I have observed Amanda many times as she has been a nurse at Hixson and feel she is an exemplary nurse. She is always joining in on projects and helping others out. She takes her job seriously and professionally. She is a great leader, listener, and co-worker to the other staff.
Amanda lives and demonstrates our core values daily. I am so proud to have her on my team!!