Maricela, a Neonatal ICU nurse who also serves as a transport nurse, charge nurse, and ECMO specialist, is an exemplary professional who is very deserving of this award. Core to Maricela’s character is always supporting her coworkers. Since we arrived in the NICU, she has gone above and beyond to teach and help us, regardless of the challenges of her own patient care or charge duties. Maricela has served as a resource, backup, and teammate every day that we have had the pleasure to work with her. She is a highly skilled nurse, whose knowledge, technical abilities, and confidence is inspiring.

Recently, I was caring for an infant on the day her parents elected to redirect care. Maricela helped me care for this infant and her family with such dignity, professionalism, and kindness. Unprompted, she stayed in the infant’s room with me as she passed, she helped me position her in her parents’ arms, and she walked me through the documentation after a long and emotionally draining day. I am very grateful not only for her actions on this day, but for all the other days filled with her tips and tricks, tag-teaming, encouragement, and teachings.

I would also like to emphasize how much Maricela has helped me throughout my career here at Rush. While I would write an essay detailing her consistent mentorship and assistance, the moment that sticks with me the most was a shift during which I was caring for an extremely premature and acutely decompensating 23-week infant. I had to stabilize this patient, perform a septic work-up, gain additional IV access, and support this patient while nitric oxide was initiated. Maricela was caring for a busy 24-week infant across the hall. However, she still managed to draw labs for me, help me get a line on this baby, and even helped me hang new drips and fluids. I remember she kept saying “don’t worry, we will tag team our assignments”, and that’s exactly what we did.

Maricela is a fantastic nurse and we both personally feel that we would not be the nurse we are today without her lessons, mentorship, and example. We have aspirations to be nurses as strong as she is in the future. Thank you for always supporting, teaching, and encouraging your fellow nurses Maricela!