Brooke was observed in her first clinical experience in long-term care facility. In the long-term care facility, there were two residents who shared a room, and both were very confused. As I was walking another student through changing dressings on one of the residents, Brooke was helping put her confused roommate to bed on the other side of the curtain. The resident who was getting the dressings on her legs changed was becoming visibly upset and started crying. Without being asked, Brooke came over to the resident, held her hand, and began talking to her in a very soothing voice to try to distract her from the discomfort she was experiencing with the dressing change. She calmed the resident by using therapeutic touch and just showing that she cared.

Before we went to post conference Brooke and another nursing student went back to this room to check on this resident, and they found her trying to get out of bed. Had they not taken the initiative to go back and check on this resident, I am certain she would have fallen on the floor. Brooke truly cares for the welfare of the patients she cares for, and her actions in clinical shows that.

The following clinical week, I found Brooke holding the hands of a confused resident in the area outside the nurses' station singing Jingle Bells. The resident and other students joined in and the joy on the resident's face was priceless. Brooke demonstrated that connecting with patients is just as important (sometimes MORE important) than any medicine we administer – and those connections make a difference.