Jen always strives for excellence when taking care of patients but really went above and beyond for one patient in particular.

The patient was young and was so sick from pneumonia that she ended up needing a trach as she was unable to wean from the ventilator. Whenever physical therapy (PT) attempted to work with the patient it would only last for 5 minutes because her heart rate would get very high and the patient would get very anxious. This lasted for a few days until Jen became her nurse.

Jen was present during PT's treatment and made sure she coordinated with PT to give her the appropriate medication so that she could tolerate and participate more with PT to help get her stronger. The patient improved so much after coordinating with Jen that we were able to walk her on the vent, where once again Jen was instrumental in coordinating with PT and respiratory therapy to make this happen.

Jen was not only committed to improving how this patient was doing functionally and medically but also emotionally. She did the little things to help make the patient feel better like washing and braiding her hair and helping her dress into her own clothes. We tend to forget just how doing things like that can improve the patient's mood while they are in the hospital. Jen really knew how to connect with this patient and make her smile.