As a health scholar, I’ve sometimes found it hard to ask nurses if they could take the time to explain certain medical techniques/situations, as they either get busy or want their downtime when things get slow. I moved up to ICU after about 8 moths of being a volunteer and until then had never had a nurse be so kind or patient as Andrea. She told me she started as a Health Scholar volunteer before nursing just like I’m doing so she understands the position I’m in. I could ask her any question I needed without feeling like my question was irrelevant.

The biggest impact she made on me was teaching me nurse-specific skills. One day, I was at my shift on a semi-busy day. I’d been snapped at by a few high-stress nurses which took down my mood a little. Andrea, seeing me not busy, asked me to come with her to help with one of her patients. As I helped bathe her patient, she asked if I knew how to empty a foley. I said no, and she spent the next hour teaching me how to empty a Foley, what each tube and wire connected to her patient did, techniques to change sheets/pads in the ICU, and each thing that needed to be done after an ICU patient comes back from surgery. It seemed like every shift after that, a nurse asked me if I could empty their patient’s foley, and I did – thanks to Andrea.

Kind, compassionate, and a true teacher for the next generation of nurses, Andrea is everything a nursing student like me looks up to.