Ryan and I (a nurse colleague) were caring for a patient on alternating shifts, the patient having been admitted for more than a week while waiting for his bloodwork to stabilize. Understandably, the patient had become discouraged about his discharge plan as it kept being delayed. Eventually, the patient realized he was going to miss his young children’s first day of school. Ryan could see he was disheartened and was able to connect with the patient through “dad jokes,” which made the patient smile and laugh more than I had seen while caring for him over four shifts. Ryan shared with me that he had been given a book of jokes and the next day he brought a collection of his favorites from the book to share with the patient. Although the patient was not able to discharge in time to see his kids off to their first day, the patient used Ryan’s collection of jokes to tell his kids over FaceTime so they were able to laugh together and create unique memories together. Ryan was even able to facilitate the discharge in time for the patient to see his kids get off the bus from school. Ryan truly went above and beyond for this patient. Thank you, Ryan!

For reference, a joke all parties of this story loved: Q: What do you call a cow with no legs? A: Ground beef. Congratulations, Ryan! Thank you for providing such excellent and compassionate care to this patient and to all those entrusted to us!