Several weeks ago, I was a patient on "1-R" and I want to call your attention to some things I saw that are worth noting. By way of introduction, I have a strong background in healthcare, specifically military healthcare, after spending 34-years in the Navy. I started my career as a Corpsman attached to Recon Marines in Vietnam, then later trained as a ward nurse, and eventually received specialized training in trauma and perioperative nursing. I was moved into hospital administration after completing graduate school, and served in all major hospital capacities, including Nurse Manager, Patient Safety Officer, Environment of Care Director, Director of Nursing Services, Administrative officer, Executive Officer, and eventually Commanding Officer. For the last few years of my career, J serv, ~9 as a Surveyor for the Joint Commission, ensuring. U.S; standards of care were being met in military hospitals in Europe and Southwest Asia.

As is perhaps typical of many Joint Commission Surveyors, as well as people who have faced evaluations of standards compliance, we never stop looking critically at hospital environments, even when we find ourselves on the "patient" side of the patient care equation. So, it is with that bias that I feel compelled to write about a few things I observed during my stay.

It has been my experience in the many hospitals where I have been assigned, as well as those I helped survey, that the staff chosen to work in cardiac units tend to be the best trained and most competent in the facility. As such, excellent care is the norm, and thus the threshold for praise is higher than in other departments. That said, I had the very fortunate situation of being assigned to one of the best nurses, I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Ms. Katherine Castro is the nurse I speak of. During my stay on 1- R, Ms. Castro somehow made me feel like I was the only patient she had been assigned to. Consistently warm and friendly, she listened carefully to everything I said about the care I was receiving, and her positive attitude and willingness to make things happen did wonders to improve my morale. I found myself looking forward to her visits.

Ms. Castro was also outstanding at keeping me informed of discussions about my diagnosis and probable care plans and literally ran interference for me with some of the medical staff. She was solely responsible for me leaving on time after her research found a physician's notes scribbled on top of some form that no one had noticed, but turned out to be the key to generating the discharge order. In fact, I was ready to sign myself out against medical advice. Ms. Castro discussed that option with me and was able to identify the only cogent argument against me taking such an action. And in doing so, her forward-thinking might have saved me thousands of dollars. It has been my observation that sometimes nurses function as technicians, using special training and skills to help the patients and augment the work of physicians. But sometimes nurses are healers, who by our presence make such a difference in the patient's welfare that outcomes change and people go home feeling so much better than they would have.

Ms. Castro is a healer, and I doubt if she even knows how good she is. If I was still involved in hospital management, I'd be doing my best to recruit her and steal her from you. But I'm now retired, so all I can do is reveal facts and observations that you might be unaware of. And I can also sing praises of the care I received on 1- R when I complete the Press Ganey evaluation form that I recently received. As a role model, they don't get much better.