Brandon is a respected clinical advanced nurse practitioner, who has helped ease the transition on 10 West and went above and beyond for a patient and his family this past weekend. The patient rapidly declined from a new cancer diagnosis and was not expected to survive the evening. In true DAISY recognition of teamwork, the day shift APPs worked to help contact the patient's family for updates and to schedule a visit, facilitated the patient talking to his brother one last time, and continued their clinical work to support my care of the patient at the bedside. Brandon was the on-coming night APP and after report, when the family arrived, he went out to meet them in the 10 West waiting room. The patient's wife came back and was able to talk to her husband. She kept anxiously looking for her daughter, who drove her to the hospital to come and say goodbye as well. The daughter did get to the bedside and was able to say goodbye to her father, and support her grieving mother. It was not until several minutes after the patient died, that I found out where Brandon had gone to and why the daughter was delayed. The daughter had an infant and had no one to watch the baby, but wanted to get her mom to the hospital. They did arrive together with the infant. Brandon stepped up in a huge way for them by offering to stay with the baby and keep her safe so the patient's daughter could go in and say goodbye. Brandon continued his regular on-coming provider work at the computer in the waiting room while being a great babysitter. The patient's daughter was needed to assist in post-expiration details with the rest of the provider team, the chaplain, and her mother. During this time, Brandon cared for the adorable but sometimes fussy baby by feeding her, rocking her, and changing her dirty diaper. The team came and checked on him, but he made it look easy to work and care for a baby at the same time.
This was such a relief to the patient's daughter, whom the mother leaned on for support in saying goodbye to her husband of 51 years. It was a tearful time in the room, but afterward, the patient's daughter and wife wanted to make sure we all were properly thanked for caring for their loved one, getting them in for a final visit, and watching the baby with such expert care. Brandon really went the extra mile for this family and the care team by taking on this unusual assignment. I really appreciated his teamwork and ability to step in and problem solve with such ease.