A friend was recently hospitalized for a GI bleed due to metastatic carcinoma. He has been in the hospital many, many times over the last 10 years. He related that there is something different and special about his nurse this time.
Here is how he described it:
All the nurses are professional and caring when they are at the bedside. But as they turn to leave the room, my friend could see the look of compassion disappear from the nurse's face, but this time it was different. The look of compassion was there every time thenurse came in the room, and it never left his face. He really made my friend feel that his needs were important, and not an imposition.
As my friend was sharing this story with me, another friend joined the conversation to share her experience with this same nurse. Her husband was hospitalized at St. John this year for a rapidly progressing respiratory illness which took his life. She also remembered how kind and genuinely interested this nurse was as he cared for her husband. People are so vulnerable when they are ill, and no one wants to be in that position. Our patients need to know that caring for them, meeting their needs, and lifting them up is the reason we are here.
Nicholas Willis is THAT nurse!