My grandpa has been in the ICU on Broadway on a ventilator for almost 2 weeks. His progress has been slow on some days and nonexistent on others. He needed pressure support and is on CRRT as well. My family has been hopeful he will recover. I’m a nurse at another hospital. I’ve never been an ICU nurse, but I’ve been around the critically ill enough to know that there is a very low chance of my grandpa getting better.

Morgan, Grandpa's case manager, and I talked about everything going on and I told them that it is very hard to explain this to my family because my grandpa just retired and they felt they owed it to him to try everything they can despite his poor prognosis. After the conversation, Morgan sat down with me and reassured me that it’s not my job to be a nurse right now. I don’t have to make it my job to explain all of this to my family. It was the staff’s job to give my family the information my family needed to make a decision that would reflect my grandpa’s wishes. My job was to be a granddaughter first and spend time with him. She understood it’s really hard to know what we know as nurses and be in this situation with our own families. She encouraged me to advocate for him. She let me cry and brought me tissues and a glass of water. Morgan helped lift a huge weight off my shoulders. She was calm, empathetic, and a nurse that inspires me to care for my patients’ families in the same compassionate way.