My husband was very ill with multiple problems when he was admitted to the hospital through the emergency department where he received excellent care from the doctors and nurses. My husband required intensive medical and nursing care in the ICU and was in isolation. He had so many complications of his illnesses. I truly do not know how the doctors and nurses so expertly managed it. His life was saved by this caring team over the three weeks he was there. I will forever be grateful for his care from these amazing professionals. I believe that one of the reasons that my husband received such excellent care was having consistent nursing staff who were familiar with his care for the majority of the time that he was in the ICU, rather than someone different every day. I truly believe this helps the care team know what is going on with the patient from start to finish to help move the care plan forward, making recovery quicker. I believe that it takes an entire team to care for someone so ill and the responsibility for the outcomes are shared by all. However, one nurse did stand out among all as a shining example of expert nursing care.
I first met Rachel Haskins when she contacted me about my husband who had been admitted to the ICU. She is one of the most caring and professional nurses I have ever met. Being a nurse for 26 years, this is saying a lot as I have met, worked with, and educated hundreds of nurses in many different settings. Nurses value competence and caring above all other values. Rachel went miles beyond the minimum necessary care expected. Not only did she take care of my husband anticipating his needs rather than just reacting to his problems, but she also took care of me too.
I was unable to visit him due to isolation restrictions. She was always prepared to give me updates on his status. She knew what was going on with him at any given moment. She informed me of the changes in his plan of care as they occurred. She didn't wait for me to call and chose to take the caring initiative to call me proactively to give me these updates. If there was a test or a result that wasn't available when we last talked, she made sure to call me with those results when they did become available. If I called and she was busy taking care of a patient and unable to come to the phone, she always called me back without fail.
Once I could tell she called me from her personal cell phone well after her shift should have ended. She explained she had a busy day with seriously ill patients and was leaving a bit later than usual. She told me that she wanted to be sure that she didn't forget to touch base with me and let me know how my husband was doing during her shift. I would never have expected a nurse to do this when they were "off the clock" and after such an intense day. I would have been understanding that the care needs of the patients would take precedence over calling me.
But this is what makes Rachel shine as a nurse, her sense of duty and responsibility to the patients under her care and their families. She displayed humble competence in her clinical nursing skills. She demonstrated a genuine sense of worth for the human life under her care and all of the other lives that are connected to that life who are impacted by the nursing care she gave to that person. It can be very difficult to do this with high care need patients. However, it was very obvious that she understood the importance of doing so and took that extra effort to make it happen.
Whenever I interacted with Rachel, I never once felt that I was bothering her or that she was too busy to take my call. I was never made to feel that she was burdened by the high care needs of my husband. She always exhibited positive confidence about what she was doing and my husband's progress. It was so obvious that she loves being a nurse and understood the awesome responsibility and duty she has to her patients. She was always up to the task with no complaints whatever my husband's care needs were or how intense her day had been with all of her patients. She made me feel like my husband was her only patient, even though I know she was responsible for others as well. She was prepared to do what she needed to do for all of them and she did it every shift and made it seem virtually effortless-although I know it did require much effort on her part.
When I was allowed to visit him in person, Rachel seemed to have boundless positive energy and was always ready to do whatever was needed and helped to coordinate his care among all of the specialties that had evaluations, treatments, or tests to be accomplished. When my husband was to be discharged from the ICU to the medical floor, she took great care to make sure that she did everything possible to help transition his care to the next team. Even when he was no longer her responsibility, she came up a couple of times to check on his status and provided consultation and advice about what she knew about him and his needs to the new team. When my husband was getting prepared to discharge to a rehab hospital, I texted her to let her know and to thank her for everything she did for him and me to get him to this point. She took the time to come to my husband's room to say goodbye and wish him well as he moved on to his next level of care.
Rachel is a nurse in every sense of the word. According to the American Nurses Association, "[n]ursing can be described as both an art and a science; a heart and a mind. At its heart, lies a fundamental respect for human dignity and an intuition for a patient's needs. This is supported by the mind, in the form of rigorous core learning. Due to the vast range of specialisms and complex skills in the nursing profession, each nurse will have specific strengths, passions, and expertise. 21st Century nursing is the glue that holds a patient's health care journey together. Across the entire patient experience, and wherever there is someone in need of care, nurses work tirelessly to identify and protect the needs of the individual...However, nursing has a unifying ethos: In assessing a patient, nurses do not just consider test results. Through the critical thinking exemplified in the nursing process ..., nurses use their judgment to integrate objective data with subjective experience of a patient's biological, physical and behavioral needs. This ensures that every patient receives the best possible care regardless of who they are, or where they may be."
Rachel exemplifies the tremendous power nurses have to help patients and their families heal physically and emotionally from the traumatic health events that have brought them to the hospital.
Rachel, because of your expert care, compassion, and teamwork, you have restored a husband and father of two to his family and friends who love him so dearly. He is alive today because you did not give up on him due to his age or his size, his clinical status, or any other reason. He is now building on the progress he made while under your care. My family is eternally grateful to you for all of your extra care to help save my husband's life. You are now and will always be considered a part of our family.