I reached out after my daughter was admitted to St. Joe's Children's in hopes of finding the right words to express my gratitude to you and your team members. I need you to know that it isn’t very often I receive an email in my inbox that mimics the one that I am sending your way. Being someone who is very well-versed in the inpatient world, I have to tell you that my experience as a mother of a sick child was more than I ever could have asked for in such a scary time. 

From the first visit to the ED, the nurses in your ED, Dr. Allen, your receptionist, down to techs taking vitals were all exceptional. When I returned with my daughter with her condition worsening, I don’t even think we sat down before Dr. Allen had us called back. This was nice, but I have a laundry list of compliments coming down the line regarding your staff upstairs. No disrespect to the ED, but the time spent was minimal, but their efforts were just as wonderful. I am a first-time mom, and if you don’t have kids, maybe you won’t understand, but if you do, then you will understand more than anyone else. If I could have taken all of that illness and suffering away, I would have, but that is physically impossible. 

The way your team handled the care of not only my daughter but, quite frankly, a scared mom was something that I will forever be grateful for. We spent days there, and as wonderful as the doctors were, the heartbeat of that floor is YOUR staff members (RNs, Techs, Activities), and I intend to dote on every single one. The level of compassion, attentiveness, time spent, explanations, relatability, and human-to-human connection were some of the best I have EVER seen in the business. We’ve all attended those dreadful conferences, and we learned about "commit to sit" and whether the patient feels heard and respected. Your team does all of that and more! 

I need to start with my friend Al. He’s a weekend RN who spends his weekdays at home with his young daughter. Wow, what a personality on him. He was funny and found ways to make my child smile in not-so-fun situations, but he also brought humor to the parents. The human-to-human interaction and relatability were much needed on day one. He had expressed his own child was admitted not too long ago and managed by the same pediatrician and that Dr. O’Hallaren was amazing. As a mom to hear an RN who works there trusted their Dr. O’Halleran with their own child’s care, was the best thing i could have heard the first 30 minutes up on that floor. We had Al Saturday for about an hour and all day Sunday. The transition from day to night was seamless, and not a single item was missed on transition from day to night on his watch I for sure thought I got lucky with Al…but your staff continued to shine. 

We met Jada C, who goes by Jay, that nurse is going to go places someday. She is young and cares for her elder grandmother and when I tell you Jay was an angel sent from above, I don’t know what else to say other than a true angel. My daughter was admitted. What I thought would be an easy one-night stay turned into my daughter needing oxygen and potentially having to be intubated. Thank God the latter didn’t have to happen, but I thank Jay for that. She was so on top of my child’s care that night, that she never let it get that bad. She was so attentive she noticed that when she laid down and started to slouch, her o2 sats dropped drastically even after o2 and high-flow o2. She sat in that room for 15 minutes, adjusting both myself and my daughter in that hospital bed (yes, I signed the consent to bypass the crib, and no rules were broken) so that I could hold her and sleep so she wouldn’t slouch, that dedication to her patient gave her the opportunity to adjust and even out on high flow o2. I can’t thank her enough for that. She saw the panic in my face, and before just making a call, she did EVERYTHING she could safely to see how to stop intubation. In all the moments that she was caring for my daughter, she still found the ability to comfort a really scared mom. The way she communicated, the amount of physical checks she did not just looking at her RPM from her desk but actual counting chest respirations, explaining the why and educating me on what to look for, the amount of times she called RT was quite honestly the best gift she could have given me. Jay was our night nurse for multiple days, on her last day on shift she brought my daughter a toy dog, because she remembered me telling her she loves dogs. I need you to know that hands down your entire staff was amazing, but Jay, she is something special. If you need someone to teach your staff how to be human and selfless, Jay would be the one to call on. I pray that any and all good the world intends to share is directed in Jay’s direction. Truly one of the best nurses I have ever interacted with in my 12 years of experience in this industry. 

We had three techs who stood out, not that all weren’t great during our stay, but again these three went above and beyond. Marisol, she has a granddaughter not much older than my child, every single time she walked into that room, she sang to her she clapped she danced. Her passion for her job and the love she has for those kids on that floor is undeniable. And when you think someone can’t be topped, Elsa and McKenzie take over, and Elsa drew pictures for my child on her dry board, sang to her. 

My lovely McKenzie to the angel who found a way to take vitals at night without disturbing my child while she slept. She couldn’t have been much older than her 20s and she had the composure and kindness and ability to do her job all night long without disturbing anyone. Asked later in the evening if I wanted to be woken up to get report. She knew enough to tell the techs coming on in the morning that we finally slept from 7-10, so to leave us to sleep if they could. 

I feel so terrible but the last tech I believe her name was Gabby but I can’t fully remember by day 7 you are exhausted. Again, what a gem! I hope these employees either stay with you until they retire or intend to grow in their careers and stay within your system. If I were you, I’d do everything I could to keep them. 

Lastly, Leah and Allie were amazing. Leah, with her turtle flashlight, was so kind and worked so hard to pick up where Jay left off, down to remembering Jay telling her we like to give her a bath at night, that she was more receptive to Mom and Dad giving meds vs the nurses. We were able to wean my daughter off of o2 in a non-traditional way, as Jay made sure Allie and Leah knew to order the NICU O2 concentrator to drop her from 1.0L down to .75 then .50 to get us over the hump, because dropping from 1L to RA was just not working for her. Sign out from every nurse-to-nurse shift change, tech to tech was so impressive. 

I could go on and on about my experience but it would be redundant. I just wanted you to know that clearly you as their leader are doing something right. In a world/industry where all too many physicians, nurses, techs all the way down to the janitors no longer take pride in their jobs and tend to focus on themselves, the money, their personal lives, or just getting through their shift, that wasn’t the case on your floor. Each and every employee showed up and did their job, but not a single one made it seem like it was a job to them. 

I felt LOVE, COMPASSION, EMPATHY, JOY, KINDNESS, and HUMANITY from every single person on that floor. If anyone was having a bad day, I didn’t know it. I’d like you to know that I observed them outside of managing my daughter. They were that way with every patient, every parent, towards one another. The culture on that floor with your staff members was something I haven’t seen in a very long time. I thanked Lisa, the charge RN, prior to our discharge, but I wanted you to get this email. 

As an admin, it always makes me proud of my team, when a patient feels seen, heard, cared for like they were family, and your staff did it! So kudos to you. I hope each employee sees this letter. Because from the bottom of my heart I cannot thank them enough. I hope to NEVER see any of them again, but if I have to, I pray we get the same team! Thank you, thank you for hiring the people who took care of my very sick child. To the parents that have chronically ill children, my heart breaks, but if they are cared for by the team that cared for my child and, quite honestly, me, they are lucky too. You are lucky; your hospital is lucky. Those staff members make St Joe's Children’s the best of the best!