Holly Conn
June 2023
Holly
Conn
,
BSN, RN, OCN
Briskin
City of Hope National Medical Center
Duarte
,
CA
United States

 

 

 

She kept me positive, encouraged, and hopeful while never wavering from excellent medical attention and care. Staying with me, she showed respect, integrity, commitment, and medical excellence.
I am thankful for the quality of care and excellence I received as a Clinical Trial patient for the past four years, at City of Hope, Briskin Center. You, and your team, literally saved my life while simultaneously improving the quality of my life. I am grateful for the team at Briskin.

One person, uniquely stands out for the highest quality of care, superior nursing excellence, and continuous patient experience, Holly Conn.

Holly is a skilled, highly competent, extraordinarily compassionate, smart, gifted nurse, healer, and leader, who ensures the highest quality of care always working to improve her team while vastly improving the patient experience. I have been in a Clinical Trial at COH with infusions at Briskin every 21 days for the past four years, a difficult process for me and my family. The quality of care, nursing staff, kindness, skills, and patient experience, makes all the difference in the world in helping patients stay on the trials and participating in the research.

Just one example of Holly's exceptional skills, compassionate care, quiet reassurance, and graceful healing work:  A member of my family was extremely ill and was admitted into the ICU, while I was sitting getting my infusion. I was so scared and felt helpless. My blood pressure started to elevate, and my legs and ankles started to swell in an emotional and allergic reaction to the infusion. Honestly, I was a mess. Worried about my loved one, getting upset during the infusion, feeling helpless and unwell, it started to snowball. Holly took over and took action. She sat down in the chair next to me and began talking to me like a friend, family member, and healer all bundled into one while continuously monitoring my blood pressure, paging my COH doctor to keep him appraised of my medical situation and slowing down the infusion rate to slow down my physical reaction. She kept me positive, encouraged, and hopeful while never wavering from excellent medical attention and care. Staying with me, she showed respect, integrity, commitment, and medical excellence. It wasn’t just her extraordinary skill as a nurse but her humility and humanity toward me. She pulled me out of my emotional state while tending to my medical and physical state, so competently, quietly, and efficiently resolving my medical issues, while paying attention to emotional challenges that by the time my physician arrived, I was cleared to leave rather than having to be admitted to the Evaluation and Treatment Center. She helped me reach my family member in the ICU, so I was able to talk to them. My blood pressure leveled off without medication.

Her professional excellence, medical abilities, and nursing skills saved my life and kept me together enough to be there for my family too.

For over four years, I have been lucky enough to come under Ms. Conn's personal and supervisory care, at Briskin. She has consistently shown integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect, and excellence. Holly never once treated me like cancer was going to beat me. She didn’t treat me like I was going to die. You have no idea what that meant to me and how it gave me hope and inspired me to stay on the Clinical Trial. Her leadership by example, created a positive patient experience for me which permeated throughout the team, giving me hope for remission and wellness. Quality of life. Peace of mind.

Holly always showed engagement and interest in my life, my hopes and dreams, and kept me planning the next steps. Treated me like I was entering the Second Act of my life, not dying of incurable cancer. She gave me Hope.

Holly and all of you are part of the reason, that my cancer is now in remission, and I am one of the honored, grateful Clinical Trial participants, who have just been informed that my Stage 4 incurable cancer is now in remission.