During our 3rd wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the BRMC team was presented with patient volumes higher than ever imagined. Nearly 200 patients were presenting daily to our 16-bed emergency department and our 72-bed hospital was frequently caring for over 90 inpatients as every potential space was used caring for our community.

With a dire need for additional staff and little relief in sight, one of our BRMC teams took quiet action to help when it was needed most. Jim Goodwin and his team of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation therapists and staff were ever-present on the inpatient nursing units helping to care for patients, facilitate discharges, and generally support our frontline nurses and techs. His situational awareness and dedication to our core mission of providing the highest quality compassionate care naturally led him to help as he and his team witnessed staff struggling to provide care under ratios far exceeding our norm. This team always responds to patient needs, but now when the outpatient services were completed, they rushed to the inpatient units and helped with everything from patient meals, bed baths, responding to call bells, toileting, and most of all comforting the patients and team with their presence. This demonstration of dedication to clinical excellence and the innate dignity of every person deepened the sense of trust and respect from both our nursing team and our community.

While other departments helped in various ways, what set our rehab team apart was their commitment to help in ways that provided the most benefit for our staff. As an example, after seeing the workflow and bottlenecks on the floor, Jim and his team wanted to do more. They reached out to our nurse educator, Sandy Danforth, to seek guidance on what they could do to help more. With Sandy’s leadership and example, Jim and his team learned how to check and document vital signs and how to perform capillary blood glucose measurements at the bedside. At this point, one nurse remarked to our leadership team “What makes Jim and his team so unique is their help is always where and when we need it.” This is the lived example of what it is to be BayCare. BayCare’s slogan is “extraordinary team / extraordinary care” – there is no better example.

Without exception, the entire nursing team at BRMC has expressed their whole-hearted desire to recognize our saviors. Literally, without the unrequested and selflessly given help, the rehabilitation services team provided, our nurses' ability to provide the highest quality and compassionate care would have been outstripped. Not only was the physical help provided dearly needed, the altruistic nature of how the help was provided has filled our cup just when we were nearly empty.