I witnessed Kali go above and beyond for a mother who was staying bedside while her infant was unstable and in very critical condition. From the moment that mom was rolled to the bedside to see her baby girl, Kali was more than empathetic with the mother. Kali helped mom get close to the bedside and began explaining all that had gone on overnight, along with the changes that had been made since she began her shift. She also explained how the baby was responding to the changes and answered all of mom's questions.

As the room became quiet again, Kali started up a conversation with the mother to assess how she was doing. She learned that mom had been discharged from the hospital room the day prior which was a holiday, and therefore mom was unable to have her prescriptions filled. Kali learned that mom had not taken any pain medications since before being discharged and was in a great deal of pain. Kali took the prescriptions from mom and called the charge nurse to coordinate having them filled for her prior to mom leaving the hospital to go back home, 2 hours away. With more concern, Kali asked if the mom had eaten anything since she was discharged and she stated she last had a meal yesterday. Kali again took it upon herself to reach out to social services and the social worker came to the bedside where she assisted mom to pick her meal from the cafeteria menu; the social worker went down and got mom lunch.

As nurses in the NICU setting, taking care of unstable critical patients can sometimes lead to the parents being left on the sideline, although that is never the nurses' intent. However, I want to commend Kali for both taking care of her patient, as well as going above and beyond to make sure the mom was taken care of.