Last Friday, Kristen and I were presented with a difficult situation. We were expecting a patient who had been recommended for an emergent section which she refused at a different facility the day before. The patient and her husband were extremely hesitant towards any interventions – even an IV or bloodwork. We sat at the bedside for at least 30 minutes, trying to explain the gravity of the situation but they were insistent that the baby would get better and wanted to come back in 2 or 3 days even though we informed them that a heart rate may no longer be detectable on the baby then. It seemed as though they had made the decision to leave again but Kristen saw an opportunity to appeal to the patient and spoke to her “mom-to-mom” – the patient then consented to an emergency C-section. At the end of our shift, Kristen and I took a trip down to the NICU to visit the baby and ran into the patient’s husband who thanked us profusely. Kristen stayed past her shift to research and print information on resources she thought would be helpful to the patient and her family. Kristen went above and beyond to care for this patient, even though she was not the primary nurse. If it weren’t for Kristen, I truly do not believe that the child would have been delivered and, probably, would have passed within the next few days. Kristen even called me on her way home to make sure I was okay and told me that she “couldn’t wait to get home and hold her kids.”

Note: This is Kristen's 3rd DAISY Award!