My son was born over a month early and immediately brought down to the NICU for respiratory support. During his nearly 2 week stay, we were blessed to have Kayla as his nurse for multiple days. Those days with her as his nurse seemed to be a turning point for our son -- he made clinical progress and began responding positively to words and physician touch. It was clear that she not only cared for him in a medical/clinical way, but also took the time to talk to him as she was caring for him and was gentle with him. Kayla was able to articulate what was going on medically, why it was happening, and what they were doing about it in a way that was easy to understand. Each and every day she treated us and my son as if we were her family/friend and not as if she were doing something routine and part of a job description. These may all be things that are par for the course of a phenomenal nurse, but she didn’t stop there. Kayla took the time to help us feel like our time in the NICU wasn’t something to remember as a sad time and would go out of her way to do personal touches such as: decorating our son's door in a theme of his due date (Valentine’s Day), doing arts and crafts with his foot/hand prints for us to have as keepsakes, making sure to keep his umbilical cord clamp and much more. I truly believe Kayla’s outstanding care for our son changed his trajectory for not only his time in the NICU but for the rest of his life. We are forever grateful for her -- all her future patients are incredibly blessed to have her as part of their journey.