September 2023
Thomas
Luzzi
,
RN, MSN, NE-BC
Emergency Room
St. Joseph's Hospital
Bethpage
,
NY
United States
The way Tom treated not only this patient but also her young son was incredible.
Tom is a nurse who truly always goes above and beyond. He never complains, is never in a bad mood, and never leaves his work unfinished. Today, we were having a particularly difficult day in the ED. We were short-staffed, with both nurses and techs, and tensions were rising as patients kept spilling in. Many were upset throughout the day and feeling burnt out. We had a young woman who came in early via EMS with a young child on her lap, and we later found out that this patient was not only in critically bad shape health-wise but that she lived in a homeless shelter with her young son and had little to no support in her own life. She had no one to look after her child as she was receiving her much-needed medical treatment. The way Tom treated not only this patient but also her young son was incredible. He checked on them often, talked the child through situations in which he could have felt scared, and when he noticed that it was nearing dinner after a long day in the ED, he took a short break -not for himself, because there was not enough staff to really take a full break- but he took 5 minutes to go and buy this child a hot dinner. Tom is truly amazing in all that he does and touches the hearts of those in need each and every day.