Nurse Pam took extraordinary care of me from the very moment she was passed off to me until twelve hours later as she handed me off to the morning nurses. At the beginning she walked in and said, “I can tell by your face you are not having your pain managed well enough.” She walked out and returned five minutes later saying she called the doctor and they had a new plan created. Once she helped me get the pain under control she began redressing my wounds, getting me a bed bath, and got the dressings and drainage better covered and more comfortably dressed so I could rest better.

Pam was busy with many high level patients that night. She went ahead and told the aids and CNA’s that whenever I pressed my button they needed to find her ASAP because if I pressed my button I needed her. She put my care and my recovery as her top priority while meeting all the needs of her other caseload. She even went as far as sitting right outside my room to do her charting so she was right there if I needed her. She clearly articulated my options of care, what she was doing and why she would do things, and gave me wonderful suggestions on how to care for myself once I was discharged. 

Pam didn’t just do her job. She invested her twelve hours with me to truly begin the healing journey both physically and mentally. Pam didn’t spend any of her 12 hours sitting in the nurse station. She worked so hard from the moment she arrived until she passed me off to the next shift. She exemplifies what it really means to be a nurse and to care due every patient as if it were someone near and deaf to hear. She never stopped and even in the exhaustion of the end of the 12 hour shift she was still working and caring for me with the same intensity and hardworking she had done from the start. Anyone fortunate enough to be cared by Nurse Pam is truly given a gift toward healing and care.