As I was making rounds on Renal Medicine the night before a survey, I found the unit absolutely spotless. Everything was in order and ready for survey. TiAngela Austin was the Nursing Unit Supervisor that night and had worked exceptionally hard to prepare her unit. In addition to all her efforts to make the survey visit a success, she was also caring for a very young patient who was dying.

This young man had been chronically ill for a very long time and had suffered with chronic pain issues. During his extended hospital stay his parents refused to leave his bedside, sleeping in chairs and eating from the vending machine. This particular night their dinner was going to be a bag of chips. But Ti wasn't going to let that happen. She went to the cafeteria and bought them chicken tenders, fries, soup, and drinks with her own money. She then went back to the unit and set up the dinner in the break room, even finding a radio for them to listen to as they ate. She then went and got the parents from the room and told them she wanted them to share a hot meal together, their initial response was "what if he wakes up and no one is there?" And that is when Ti replied "he won't wake up alone, I'll sit with him while you're gone."

In my opinion this is the definition of nursing. Compassion cannot be taught in a classroom or learned from a book, this type of compassion comes straight from the heart. Just seeing this type of caring was a blessing to me and I know it was to the parents of this patient as well. I feel that Ti went above and beyond for both unit readiness and for this family in their time of need.