I’ve had a lot of surgeries and a lot of nurses. Ernesto has been one of my favorites. He made me feel so comfortable and always made me smile. Ernesto always made me feel like I was his only patient even though I know that was not further from the truth. Because I’ve had a lot of surgeries, I know how to manage my post operative pain pretty well and so he would engage me in care decisions (like if I wanted to go with a heavier pain med that would make me more nauseous or try a more mild pain med first) when possible which made me feel more comfortable and autonomous and respected for my previous experience.

I have trauma related to needles and so I often have anticipatory anxiety with the blood tests in the morning. After telling this to Ernesto, Ernesto sat with me held my hand, and distracted me while I had my labs taken. The next day when he wasn’t even my assigned nurse, he made sure to come for my labs and visited me through his shift to check in. He made me feel a lot more calm throughout my whole hospital stay because I knew I had him on my team.

I love walking at night after my surgeries but know that it can be hard for nurses to have that time to walk with me. Ernesto always found time to walk with me and we would talk about places in New York that we liked and the holidays. He helped me feel less lonely during my stay, especially with the visitor restrictions.

Towards the end of my stay, my IV got clogged when I was in desperate need of anti-nausea meds. I was really scared because it was hurting to flush it really bad and I was anxious I would need another IV. When I was really freaking out after one nurse tried to flush it, Ernesto came and said he had to try one more time but promised to take it at my pace and stop if I needed. He also did everything on his end to make it as painless as possible and tried to distract me through it. I felt really bad because I was hysterical, but Ernesto helped me validate my emotions and get through an experience that caused me a lot of panic. He always took the time to explain every procedure and medication to me. I also saw him mentoring a PCA and talking to them about considering nursing school.

Ernesto’s compassion, passion for nursing, patience, and how he made me feel more like a human during my stay really stood out to me. Every night I had Ernesto as my nurse made me feel confident and even more lucky to be at HSS. My words do not do justice to how amazing of a nurse he is.