Denise treats each patient she encounters with care and compassion. The patients and families love her. Denise is always picking up extra shifts to help her co-workers. She is very dependable and reliable. Denise never calls off and is always willing to come in early so a co-worker can keep a doctor appointment or attend their child's event.
In the NSICU currently, we have a patient who has been with us for over 100 days. She does not respond to any stimulation, nor does she interact in any way. The care of this particular patient has taken an emotional and physical toll on everybody on the unit. In an attempt to alleviate these feelings, the patient's assignment is rotated often. Making sure that members are not given this assignment more frequently, Denise regularly accepts this assignment and has gained the spouse's trust so much, something that has eluded other members of the care team. Denise brings in nail polish and makes sure that this patient gets a different color nail polish every week. It turned out that this was one of the things that the patient always did, she always gets her nails done weekly. With the patient being unresponsive for months, Denise made sure that one of the things that mattered most to the patient continued to influence and be a part of her even under her current status.