Rachel is a nurse in the CVICU that demonstrates compassionate care to our patients every day. Rachel has one of the biggest hearts I know of. She takes amazing care of her patients and their families. She is also the hospital service rep for the Healing Hearts Project. This is a group that supplies snacks, toiletries, and surgery day meals for our heart patients. She is constantly looking for ways to make her patients feel better. She brings them to the heart cart to find snacks. She takes them toys when she feels like they need a pick me up. She along with the Healing Heart Project supplies candy, bags, and different things for the kids to have during the holidays to make it fun while they are in the hospital.
One example recently was that her patient did not want to eat. Rachel hid treats around the unit for the child to find after she was finished eating. I have personally helped her with a patient that was here from another country through the Patrons of the Heart Foundation that was sad and would not cheer up. We walked around the unit singing and dancing to different line dances and being silly. Through this, Rachel was able to cheer the child up and made her stay less stressful. I am so glad Rachel included me on such a fun day.
She is so caring for our families, especially in difficult times. Being on the committee for the Healing Hearts she has the ability to take even more care of the families. During very sad events she will order food for the family, bring them snacks, etc. Not everyone on the unit has access to do that for the families, but all you have to do is make a call or text and she will help you. She advocates for her patients makes them happy and the families love her too. She is a true DAISY Nurse in my book.
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I wanted to take a moment to recognize one of our favorite nurses at Wolfson's. My son was born with a congenital heart defect and was cared for with amazing love in the CVICU. We've had a total of 3 CVICU stays in the last 2 years, the first being a 2-month stay.
Rachel Mitchell has been incredible to us. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of nurses that we adore as well, but I wanted to specifically recognize Rachel. She's done so much for us, from caring for our son to caring for us as parents. I remember when I first met Rachel; she asked me who I was because she was caring for my son that day. She seemed quite protective of him and it turned out, she was. She wanted to make sure whoever came up to visit her patient was someone that should have been there to begin with. I was approved, given I was his mom! Anything we wanted or needed, she provided. There were things I hadn't even thought about because we had just been thrust into this world of congenital hearts and had no idea as he was not diagnosed before birth. Everything was new, scary, and unnerving. She first brought me a great book about congenital heart defects. It explained all of the known Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) and what they were and what caring for a child with CHD entailed, like getting antibiotics on board for dental work. She also told us about The Healing Hearts Project and the Heart Cart, which has all sorts of comforts that you may have forgotten to bring from home, such as snacks, toothpaste, soap, etc.
She also told us about how on surgery days, The Healing Hearts Project provides food from Simply Sara's, so the families don't have to think about what they're going to eat. She took our order that day and made sure we were comfortable. She's also done some really sweet things for us. From bringing me chocolate covered Oreos to bringing my son special toys to make him happy while he was inpatient, even just sitting and talking with me to get my mind off things. She brought me dinner from Simply Sara's on several occasions, breakfast, and brought me a gift card to Starbucks during an unexpected stay. She's incredible. She goes above and beyond for her patients and families. She's the reason why people like me have faith in the people that care for our son. She's kind, giving, and compassionate; she's got your back, and we couldn't have asked for the amazing care she provided to us and continues to provide to her patients. She's truly a gem.