Let me start this by saying that finding care for my 10-month-old child did not come easy to us. A three-day hospital stay in our small hometown hospital, one ER trip to a larger hospital, one trip back to that hospital for an abdominal X-ray and an NP that made a joke of my concern, and finally one two-hour drive praying and hoping we would be admitted through Wesley ER to see a pediatric doctor who would hear us. Wesley listened. We were admitted and while running on 48 hours of no sleep, things declined quickly. Our baby not only was very sick but had a bad infection in his shoulder that had leaked into his bloodstream. This infection would require three MRIs, four surgeries, seven IVs, countless blood draws, and a PICC line. Before we knew it, a week had come and gone but to us, it felt like one of the longest days of our lives. And then it turned into two. While all of our nurses we received care from were compassionate, Anna truly went above and beyond, she treated our baby with immaculate care.

From her very first shift with us, she went completely out of her way to make sure our baby was comfortable and felt as ‘at home’ as he could in a hospital room. Anna spoke directly to our baby as the patient even though he is only 10 months old, and says only two or three words. She took her time while in the room explaining to him what she was doing and made it fun for him as his trust in people in masks, gowns, and gloves had fallen short. Even when we could tell she was busy she made the time for anything we needed and never made us feel like a burden. I witnessed this with her coworkers as well, you could see her truly being a team player and she showed admirable leadership skills. When our baby had yet another failed IV, the look of dread in her eyes matched mine. When our labs came back reading the complete opposite of what we needed she’d rub my shoulder and give me encouraging words. When she would come on shift and see he had yet another surgery, she would rub his hair and speak sweetly and softly to him. This experience has been the scariest thing as a parent I have ever had to go through, but having Anna as a nurse made it less of a heartache. She cared for our babe as if she was caring for family and that made it well deserving of this nomination.