I wanted to send a shout out to one of our incredible assets to both nightshift and our entire nursing team, Mary Loomis. On many occasions, not just the one I am currently writing about, Mary, without hesitation has come to assist my unit during an emergent situation. This past shift, however, her leadership was particularly appreciated. I cannot express the importance of teamwork and adaptability in our specialty and let me tell you, we certainly have something special here at Tampa General. I have never worked with this level of talent, intelligence, and committed medical staff in my career. I'll start off by saying, it was one of those nights where time was not on our side unfortunately, but because of Mary our 6F team was able to give a patient her best shot at survival.

It was around 3:30a when one of our nurses let me know a patient who had been on the unit for several weeks, had a recurrent bleeding episode, and her hgb was 5. GTB was already to bedside and requested the level One be set up to massively transfuse. We are currently training a new Clinician to night shift, and I took on patient care while she was doing an amazing job in her new role. I headed over to our shared storage closet and grabbed the equipment. I was greeted by Mary, who I'm sure saw the pep in my step and concerningly asked if I needed a hand. I told her "I think we are ok right now but would definitely let her know." As a side note: I was holding my voalte phone particularly tight that evening, because I was anticipating a call from the O.R. giving a timeframe to when my transplant patient would be called to report for his Liver and Kidney.

I set up the machine and gave a quick refresher to the team on the transfusion process. It was then, I received that predicted call and had a decision to make. I had full confidence in my nurses and knew that they could handle this but wanted to make sure they had an additional resource just in case. I walked over to 6E/G, and asked Mary if she had a second to help. Without an ounce of hesitation, she dropped what she was doing, secured her unit, and jumped right in!! Grateful, I then packed up my patient, who was alert and oriented and very nervous about this life-changing day. Meanwhile, my other patient who was intubated, on drips, was being monitored by another nurse. We hadn't even left the unit before a code was called on the patient being transfused. It was a long emotional code because the family was at bedside, and it unfortunately ended in the patient's demise. Mary remained present the entire time and even offered to help clean up and postmortem care. A true ACE, in my opinion. This kind of nature defines leadership, and we are so lucky to have her!

I was very thankful to be able to spend a minute candidly with my patient and encourage his positivity because he deserved it. Sometimes, nursing requires more than a skill set, but an abundance of humanity. Which is what I love most about my job. I felt this important to highlight because of how impactful it was to all of us involved and hope her influence guides our newer staff to their successes! You’re a rock star, Mary! Thank you!