I understand the struggles with the shortages of hiring nursing staff and also the caliber of the new hiring nurses. This is the point where I need to bring your attention to nurse Rachel M. With the heavy workload of 5 patients over the course of her shift of 12 hours with me included as one of her patients, I had some unique issues. When she came into my room with that effervescent personality and smile and her willingness to help was a huge stress release for me. She made me feel that I was the only patient in her care. The request to have Rachel on my last day on the floor was also approved by the charge nurse which I was thankful for.

I needed to be readmitted to monitor my blood thinners. The night before surgery, with a heavy patient load, Rachel spent over an hour back-channeling coordination with the physicians and by 11 pm she came into my room with a large notepad and said we now have a plan. She proceeded to the whiteboard and wrote down the timeline for things to be done. Rachel had two cell phones with different alarms set so that I was always in sync with her timeline on the whiteboard. She made it a point to come into my room and execute these procedures, which totally took the stress off of me.