I have had the pleasure of working alongside Kristyn for the past 7 years. She is an extraordinary example of what a DAISY Nurse represents. Kristyn exceptionally demonstrates kindness and compassion towards patients and families, while showing her peers a strong sense of loyalty and commitment. The NICCU is an extremely stressful unit where parents are scared and overwhelmed when they enter this unknown world. I had the task of caring for a critical preemie patient that came to the NICCU as her last hope. As the day began, the NICCU team realized that the patient was requiring more and more interventions to keep her saturations and blood pressure up. The situation had unraveled to the point where the doctors were writing so many new orders as the patient’s condition changed from bad to worse. It got overwhelming having to balance the flow of new medications, multiple blood transfusions, changes in IVFs, with the lack of IV access and numerous attempts for lab draws. Kristyn was one of the first of my co-workers to jump in and help me swim when I was quickly drowning. She was changing out my lines, titrating my blood pressure continuous drip medication, grabbing vitals, and helping anywhere she could. Kristyn never left my side.

Then, my patient coded and we immediately went into autopilot mode, jumping into chest compressions, pushing in meds, and handbagging to keep an open airway. Kristyn was a beautiful whirlwind of expertise and help. Thinking back on this event, I only remember the blur of brown hair at the corner of my eye as she spins in place from switching out after performing compressions to now providing life-saving cardiac medications for this infant. We were able to stabilize this patient at the time, but the late afternoon had a different story for us. The patient again went into respiratory and cardiac arrest, and we ended up coding her for the second time. However, as scary as it was the first time, this second time was more traumatic and tragic. In the end, we weren’t able to save her, and heaven found another angel. Kristyn was one of the first to help silently move medical equipment out of the room and push in a chair for me to hold. The parents could not make it in time, and we wanted to make sure that the baby knew she was not alone. Many of my colleagues stayed with me in her room as we held my patient and filled the room with love. Kristyn was there, squeezing my shoulder and rubbing my arm, letting me know that if I needed anything, she would be there. 

After some time, we prepared to give my patient her last bath. Kristyn arrived with the cutest clothes to dress her in after her bath and began to play a sweet baby lullaby. The songs were Disney themed of course, since she knew how much of a Disney fanatic I am. Her full attention was on this child. As she told the baby how amazing she was, how beautiful she was, and how much we loved her. We continued with her bath as we held her little hand, stroking her cheeks, and brush her hair. We dressed her together, and she looked so peaceful at the end. The entire time Kristyn was able to help me during this shift, she was still able to take care of her own patient assignments while precepting a new hire.      

I am grateful for Kristyn’s humility, her extraordinary care, and the compassion she showed toward both my patient and me. Kristyn’s dedication to staying with me and my patient during the multiple codes, helping us hold, and providing the last bath showed her dedication and commitment. Kristyn inspires all of us to go the extra mile for all our patients and families in any situation.