We were admitted with an unclear diagnosis, and a child in respiratory failure. It was a very traumatizing experience not just for our 9mo who got intubated, but for my wife and I, who never thought we’d learn how it felt to see our child in that circumstance. We were lucky to immediately have excellent nursing care, but on the second night of our stay we were especially impressed with Sam. She was extremely communicative about every step of our child’s care, and was very obviously highly proficient in performing it. Beyond that, Sam was empathetic. She helped us turn the scared, panicky corner, allowing us to have a much more confident and calm experience in knowing how our child was being treated, and that she was going to receive the same level of care that she would receive if she were the child of any one of the nursing staff. She was assigned our room again the next few nights, and it’s hard to overemphasize how important a stabilizing force having a driven, confident, competent night nurse is. At one point, after enduring one of my ponderous inquiries about the mechanism of action with regards to the antitoxin for botulism, she even came back with additional resources pulled from multiple sources both in the hospital and online. The information was even collated into several different headings. It has been 14 days that my daughter has been in the PICU, and nearly every time she is in the hospital Sam drops in for a minute to check on her. I’m sure I’m missing a half-dozen other minor kindnesses, but when I finally took the time to read that there was an award for outstanding nursing service, my wife and I agreed we should submit Sam, and I would view the award as unobtainable if she weren’t qualified! Hoping you read a thousand submissions just like this one.