Alice Robinson's positivity lifts the spirit of the unit and the teammates even when we have bad days. Never has there been a day that Alice would come into the unit without a smile on her face. Alice always gives us encouraging words such as "we can do this people!", "let's start a positivity train!" and go around the nursing station while imitating a train sound. One of the examples is that how she coordinated potlucks and little parties for teammates' birthdays and holidays. She will buy the birthday girl's choice of desserts from her own pocket just to brighten up their day when they have to work on their birthday.
Her positivity truly lifts the spirit of the staff. She is so supportive on day to day tasks. She always asks nurses if they need help. She is willing to do anything to help the teammates whether it is changing the trash bag, cleaning breast pumps, to providing nursing care when the assigned nurses are busy.
Most importantly she treats each patient with such a compassionate heart. Often, our unit takes care of mothers who have a history of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or smoking during or prior to pregnancy. Since we also take care of newborns who may be affected negatively by those behaviors of mothers, it is hard to truly have neutral opinions on these patients as a person or as a nurse, although we do provide them with the best nursing care that they deserve no matter what their medical or social backgrounds. One day, nurses were having a heated discussion at the unit on these issues, mainly how concerning it is for the newborn when the mother has such a social history. Alice said, "My heart breaks when I think about the babies, but we don't know what the mothers have been through to be in that situation. They may have some serious traumatic childhood experience themselves. They may be struggling to live a day-to-day life financially. We just don't know. We just need to focus on how fortunate we are to not be in that situation and treat these moms with an understanding heart as a person and as a nurse." I left that unit with a piece of her compassionate heart. I am sure many nurses that day also felt the way that I did. Ever since then, I always try my best to treat my patients not only to provide excellent care as a nurse but also as a person with a compassionate heart following her example.