My son was admitted to the NICU for a full month - we were lucky enough to have Nan assigned to his care for several of those days - specifically Nan was our nurse on the day we were told that our son had bacterial meningitis and would require many more days of care as well as an MRI to determine brain involvement. Nan went out of her way not only to provide excellent care to my son but also provided an exceptional level of care and compassion to me and my family - facilitating an emergency in-room baptism and allowing us all the time we needed with our son before he was taken away to MRI.
I work as a nurse practitioner myself, and know the difference between a nurse who does their job well and a nurse who is exceptional at what they do because they have genuine care and compassion for their patients and families - as well as a true passion for the work that they do. Nan is one of those exceptional nurses and deserves recognition for the wonderful work that she does.
Even after she received different assignments and was no longer assigned to care for my son she went out of her way to greet me, by name, when she saw me in the NICU and came to check in on "her boy" as she lovingly referred to my son. Aurora is lucky to have such an exceptional RN as part of their NICU staff. My time spent at my son's bedside in the NICU would not have been the same without Nan's exceptional care and compassion - she is truly the embodiment of the type of RN the DAISY Award was created to recognize.