I nominated Andrea Vasquez for the DAISY Award for her exceptional heart and passion to go above and beyond in caring for her patients. Andrea was the charge nurse on duty when a call for help came in. We had a patient on palliative/comfort care who found out that she had cancer at the same time she found out she was expecting a baby. Months later, this patient was on STC 4 for end-of-life care and her baby was a patient in the NICU. The patient’s last wish was to hold her baby. Her family and both the STC 4 and NICU teams wanted to find a way to facilitate a family visit for the patient, her husband, their 8-year-old daughter, and their new 3-week-old baby boy to create a joyful memory during such a heartbreaking time.

This meeting was proving to be difficult due to a variety of needs for both mother and baby and the floor nurses’ scope of practice. The baby could not visit the mother due to his need for air and the nurses in the NICU were unable to monitor and care for this mother for an extended period of time. With the help of another charge nurse who came in to cover Andrea’s last hour on the floor, Andrea not only sat with the patient and their family for that hour but stayed well over her shift to ensure a timely and meaningful visit.

On another day, Andrea noticed that the patient was more awake and alert, so with the assistance of her team to care for her patient load, she facilitated yet another visit to the NICU to bring even more comfort and joy to this young mother in her last days. Andrea’s kindness and great compassion gave this patient comfort beyond measure and her family memories will last forever.