Jamie was assigned to take care of my mother on OHVI 4th Floor (Cardiac Surgery). She was an excellent nurse in all the traditional ways: clinically competent, kind, patient, and empathetic. What I'm most appreciative of though is the fact that she recognized that I wasn't thinking clearly; stress, sleep deprivation, and extreme emotions had taken their toll on me. No one would ever have faulted her for not broaching the subject, yet she advocated for my mother by taking the extra time and risk to ask me about the hospice option I hadn't even considered: having Mom transported out of town to either my or my sister's home.

When I explained that it was just that my sister and I both live over an hour away and I hadn't even considered transporting Mom that far, she assured me that she thought Mom could tolerate the trip, she double-checked that with the physician, and emphasized that they could and would keep Mom comfortable (sedated) for the trip. One of the old definitions of nursing was by Henderson who wrote the nurse assists patients to do what "they would (do) unaided if they had the necessary strength, will, or knowledge." Jamie stepped up to be my brain when I couldn't think clearly for myself and that, as Robert Frost wrote, "made all the difference." Mom was transferred to hospice and died peacefully in my sister's home with my sister and me in attendance and her grandchildren all having been able to visit. She exemplified the very best in nursing and is a credit to her unit and the hospital!