Our patient had medical complications and had to be transferred to another unit in the hospital. The next morning, the patient's wife came up to our unit and was very upset over the condition of her husband. Rose put her arms around her, comforted her, and let her cry on her shoulder. The family told her how kind she was and how much she appreciated her and Rose told her, "listen, you know where I am, come any time to see me, and here; let me give you my personal cell phone so you can call me whenever you feel you need to talk to someone". I was down the hall and observed this interchange. I was very struck by Rose's genuine care and compassion for this family member. That family member has commented on how special Rose is. She is unaware that I overheard and observed her act of kindness.
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The description above is just one small example of the kind of caring, selfless person this nurse is. Rose is very concerned about ensuring that the patients have the care and attention needed. She connects with each of her patients by getting to know their interests and finding common ground to relate to them.
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Rose is the ultimate team player. She cares about the continuity of patient care and initiates looking at the schedule and signing up for extra shifts or changing existing schedules around when she realizes we are short a nurse. Rose is continually looking for ways to improve shift-to-shift communication for the safety of the patient, she has suggested, and implemented several processes to improve flow of care, and accuracy of information. Rose works extremely well with our physician's and other ancillary staff, coming in on her days off to be a part of celebrations we have for staff members.
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Rose is an excellent mentor to nurses new to our staff. Our physician recommended that she be the nurse who is scheduled with the nurses to orient them when it all possible. Our physician has commented that the person orienting will get a very thorough orientation with this Rose. Rose is very patient and kind to the staff orienting, taking time to explain and help the person, which is very important in retaining our staff.